


That Summer

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-02
Updated: 2008-01-28
Packaged: 2019-01-19 23:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 85,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12420090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: It\\'s the summer before seventh year and someone\\'s moving in next door to Lily\\'s house. someone she\\'d never expect in a million years to move in. Major changes are in store for Lily Evans...she just doesn\\'t know it yet.[Hourglass Nominee 2007]





	1. New Acquaintances

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

-1 **Disclaimer:** As much as I would love to own Harry Potter, that right belongs to JK Rowling so anything you recognize is hers…although, I wouldn’t object to owning James if she’d let me ; ) ! Hey a girl can dream can’t she?

**Chapter 1: New Acquaintances**

It was one of the hottest days of the summer to date and every single window in the Evans family’s house was propped open, the sheer white curtains which adorned every window floated lazily back and forth as a result of the light draft entering the house. There was no need for lights because the sun was so vivid, the only light one needed was the sun’s dulcet rays which poured through the house as easily as if it were a prism.

The warm breeze seemed to carry the familiar tastes of summer directly to your lips, fresh cut grass, wet asphalt, the cool night that would follow after the sun slipped away behind the rolling hills.

Lily Evans stood leaning on the kitchen counter eating a cherry Popsicle and flipping through one of her mum’s old entertainment magazines. She wore a white tank top made out of thin material and a pair of tattered denim shorts that had been pants before she cut them, on her feet were a pair of worn out comfy white sneakers. The vintage clothes she wore, did not take away her natural beauty like it would on some but instead enhanced it.

Her usually pale skin was slightly tanner due to the hours she had spent outside and the few freckles that were scattered about her nose were all the more visible. Her longish red hair was down and combined with the light that was filtering through the many windows of the kitchen, gave off the impression that she had a halo-ish glow surrounding her head. Lily secured the cherry popsicle between her now tainted red lips and gathered her auburn hair up into a messy bun, sweeping it up from where it was beginning to stick to her neck and securing it with a white scrunchie. All the while, her bright emerald green eyes never leaving the magazine she was reading.

A child’s laugh drifted through the open window and Lily looked up to see the children from across the street along with some friends running happily through the sprinklers in front of their house. She smiled at the innocence of it all wishing for a moment that she could be as carefree as they were.

Lily’s thoughts were interrupted as she heard someone enter the kitchen behind her.

“Hello sweetheart.”

Lily smiled as her mother walked in, giving her daughter a kiss on the top of her head before walking over to the sink and pouring herself a glass of water.

“Hi mum.” Lily replied, “Where’s daddy?”

“Well, Petunia is over at Vernon’s house in case you’re even remotely curious,”

Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes at the mention of her sister. Things had just never been the same between her and Petunia ever since she had received her Hogwarts letter six years ago. Their parents, however much they hated their two daughters not getting along, had stopped pushing the two together forcefully figuring that they would both come around in their own time.

“and your father had to run to the office unexpectedly for a couple of hours but he should be home-”

Mrs. Evans was cut off by a third voice that joined the conversation.

“Right now.” Came the voice of Mr. Evans as he entered the kitchen through the side door.

“Jeff, you’re home early!” Mrs. Evans replied happily.

“Hey there princess.” Jeff Evans said, greeting Lily with a playful ruffle on the head before turning to his wife.

“Yeah, turns out it was only something small down at the office so it didn’t take as long as we thought it was going to.” Jeff Evans replied as he kissed his wife on the cheek.

“Mm…” Mrs. Evans replied as she took another sip of water.

“So, have you two seen the moving trucks next door yet?” Mr. Evans asked.

“You mean someone’s finally moving in dad?” Lily asked.

She glanced out the window, straining her neck a bit until she could just make out three enormous red and white moving vans parked in front of the house next door.

“Yeah, it would appear so sweetie.”

“Yeah, I saw that too this morning when I was watering the flowers.” Mrs. Evans replied.

“Mrs. Blackwell, you know that nice old lady who lives two doors down? She told me that a family was moving in a few days ago and I saw the woman whose moving in this morning, she seems really nice and I’m sure her family is too.”

“Well, if they have kids then they’ll fit right in here, especially if they’re near Tommy and Katie’s age.” Lily said remembering her seven year old neighbors who had been running through the sprinklers earlier.

“Well, I just baked a batch of sugar cookies this morning, we should go over with some and introduce ourselves.” Mrs. Evans replied.

“That sounds like a great idea dear.” Mr. Evans replied enthusiastically. “I’ll leave that to you and Lily, but I’ve got to go get some papers organized in my office…my boss says he wants them sent out by tomorrow.”

“Alright, dear.” Mrs. Evans replied as Jeff exited the kitchen, going down the hall toward his office.

As soon as her husband left, Mrs. Evans pulled out a medium sized glass tray as well as the batch of cookies she had baked. After arranging them on the tray, she handed them to Lily.

“Why don’t you go over there and give these to our new neighbors sweetheart. I’ll be along in a bit.”

“Alright mum.” Lily replied, throwing the popsicle stick into the garbage can.

She made for the front door before her mum called her back.

“Oh, and Lily! Don’t forget to introduce yourself! And don’t forget your manners!”

Lily smiled, feeling as if she were three years old again with her mother telling her to remember her manners and such.

“I won’t mum!” she called as she walked out the door and closed it behind her.

Lily walked down the porch steps and turned left, approaching the house next door.

The three large moving trucks were all open and every now and then a mover would take something out to bring inside.

Nearing the front of the house, she saw that the two car garage was open, revealing a modest compact car in a champagne color as well as a smaller sleek red sports car, both by the looks of if brand new.

“Oh great.” Lily muttered as she neared their porch. “I hope they’re not snobby rich people.”

Lily was at the stairs now. She took a deep breath and muttered,

“Well, I guess I’m about to find out.”

before walking up to the front door which was wide open.

She peered inside and noticed that the house was more or less laid out in the same way her own was.

“Hello?” Lily called, though still remaining outside not about to walk into someone else’s house uninvited.

“Is anyone home?”

At her last call, a woman around her mother’s age came over from what Lily guessed was the kitchen.

She was tall and slim with dark brown hair and wore a pair of old jeans and a women’s plaid blue tee shirt.

The woman had a kind face and a warm smile played on her lips as she walked over to where Lily stood at the door. As she neared, Lily saw that she had very pretty hazel eyes, framed by thick eyelashes and although Lily couldn’t quite put her finger on why, her eyes seemed surprisingly familiar, like she had seen them somewhere else before.

“Hello dear.” The woman said stopping in front of Lily at the doorway.

“Hi, mam.” Lily replied with a smile. “My name’s Lily, I live next door. My mum sent me over here to introduce myself and welcome you to the neighborhood. She also sent over a batch of her sugar cookies for you and your family.”

“Well,” the woman replied, in her warm and genuinely happy voice. “it’s nice to meet you Lily. But enough of this ‘mam’ nonsense! Just call me Moira and come on inside.”

“Alright!” Lily replied with a smile as she handed over the cookies and followed Moira into the house and to the kitchen.

“I was just about to pour myself a glass of lemonade, would you like some Lily?” Moira asked.

“Yes, Please.” Lily replied.

Moira took out two glasses and a pitcher from the refrigerator and poured a glass for Lily handing it to her.

“It really is sweet of your mother to send these cookies over, you’re the first person to come and introduce themselves,” Moira explained. “Everyone else has just been staring at the moving trucks!”

Lily chuckled, and decided that she liked Moira already.

“Though, I don’t know how long they’re gonna last in this house what with my husband and my son. They’re like human trash disposals!”

Lily laughed again agreeing completely with Moira before speaking again.

“You have a son?” she asked.

“Oh, yes, he’s just about-” but Moira was cut off by a soft knock at the front door.

“Is anyone there?” the voice called.

“Oh! That’s my mum!” Lily explained as she put her almost empty glass of lemonade in the sink.

“We’ll be right there!” Moira called as she and Lily walked over to the front door.

Mrs. Evans came into view as Lily rounded the corner with Moira.

“Hi, I’m Laurie, and I see you’ve already met my daughter Lily.” Laurie Evans said, introducing herself.

“Yes I have, I’m Moira by the way, it’s very nice to meet you Laurie”

Moira said with a smile and shaking hands with her.

“I was just going to tell Lily to thank you for the sugar cookies but now I can thank you myself!” Moira said.

“Oh, it was no trouble really, and welcome to the neighborhood.”

“Thank you! Its nice to know we have such nice neighbors,” Moira replied. “I’d introduce you to my husband but he’s at work at the moment…quite the workaholic he is.” Moira explained.

“I know what you mean, my husband’s doing the same thing, they’ll get along perfectly.”

The two woman laughed.

“Well, my husband’s not here, but my son should be around here somewhere.” Moira replied

“Oh, you have a son?” Laurie Evans asked.

“Yes, actually I was just telling Lily before you came. Actually, from the looks of it, I’d say they’re around the same age…here let me call him down so you can meet him, he’s probably upstairs.” Moira replied before going to stand by the banister of the stairs.

“Sweetie? Sweetie! Come down here, I want you to meet our new neighbors!” Moira called.

“Kay, mum, I’ll be down in a sec!” came a boy’s voice.

For the second time since she had met Moira, Lily felt as though there was something familiar, originally it had been Moira’s eyes, but now the voice that had called down the stairs seemed familiar too…but why couldn’t she put a finger on it?

Lily stared out the window, pondering just this until she heard footsteps descending the stairs rapidly.

“Oh, good here he comes.” Moira replied.

Lily’s head snapped back to the front of the stairs and her eyes grew to largely the size of two saucers as she took in the boy’s appearance who had just come down the stairs.

His lanky frame was all to familiar to her, and she knew she could never miss that unruly mop of jet black hair anywhere. And as she took in his familiar hazel eyes, framed behind round wire rimmed glasses, she suddenly realized why Moira’s eyes had looked so familiar, because they were _his eyes_. They were _James Potter’s_ eyes. And it was at this point that Lily’s jaw dropped and both adults looked at her strangely.

“Hi, I’m Jame-” James who had been picking a piece of lit off of his tee shirt, looked up for the first time, realizing that Lily Evans was standing in front of him and his jaw dropped as well.

“You!” they both screamed in unison.

“What are you doing here?!”

“Who me?!”

“Yes you!”

“I _live_ here!”

“No you don’t _I do_!”

“Stop copying me!”

“Wait! You two know each other?” Moira asked.

“Yes.” They said together.

“Potter! I’m serious, if you don’t stop it right now,” Lily warned.

“Calm down, Lily dear, there’s no reason to get upset.” Laurie said to her daughter.

“You are _so_ Lucky my mum’s here.” Lily replied in a whisper.

“Oh yeah? And if she wasn’t what would you do about it _Evans?_ ” James replied, though more in a teasing manner than anything else. James liked Lily, he could never be mad at her, he just liked to _see_ her get mad.

“James,” Moira replied warningly, “the same goes for you.”

The two teenagers glared at each other until Lily’s mum spoke again.

“Now, can you two please explain to Moira and myself exactly how you two know each other?”

“Mrs. Evans, mum, Lily and I both go to Hogwarts.” James explained.

“Oh, please dear, call me Laurie, no need to be formal.” Laurie Evans said giving James a warm smile.

“Oh, ok, Laurie.” He replied.

“Wait- is this the same Lily Evans that you’re always talking about?” Moira asked her son.

Lily shot James a _so-you-tell-your-parents-about-me_ look, causing his cheeks to tinge pink.

“ _Mum!_ I don’t tell you guys about-”

“Oh we’ve heard a lot about your daughter through James Laurie, I swear that every other letter home was Lily this or Lily that.” Moira said.

“And this wouldn’t be the same James Potter you’re always ranting about would it Lily dear?” Laurie asked her daughter.

“ _Mother!_ ” Lily replied through gritted teeth, not believing that she had actually just said that as both women launched into a discussion as to what each had heard about the others child from their own.

“Well, well, the truth comes out.” James replied.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Potter.” Lily retorted, her arms crossed.

“So you’re writing about me home are you? I guess you like me after all, Ev.” James replied, ruffling his hair.

“Oh please!” Lily scoffed, “What planet are you living on? _Oh! I know_! It must be planet _In your dreams_ because that’s the only way what you’re suggesting would _ever_ happen you dolt!” Lily replied.

“Oh come on Evans, am I really that bad? Can’t you admit that you like me even just a little?”

“Stop and think for a moment James. Do you _really_ want me to answer that question?”

“Hmm…” James replied, his index finger on his chin as if deep in thought. “No, I’ve got a better one for you…How bout you go out with me?”

The two were so caught up in their arguments that they hadn’t noticed that both adults had stopped their conversation to watch them.

Lily laughed before answering.

“When are you going to get it through your thick skull that there is no way that I will ever go out with you! You are an egotistical, big headed, prat who defies the laws of gravity every time you get on a broom stick and can get off the ground with that fat head of yours! I’m surprised you can even walk! Let alone get through the doors at school!”

“So, that’s a no?” James asked meekly.

“No Potter,” Lily replied.

James’ face perked up thinking that there was still a chance.

“That’s a hell no!” Lily spat. “I’ve had enough! I’m leaving!” Lily replied turning on her heel and stomping out the door.

“Well fine! No on asked you to stay anyway!” James yelled out after her before stomping up the stairs himself.

Laurie Evans and Moira Potter were left standing in the hall looking at each other.

“Well, that went well...I apologize on behalf of Lily for what she said to James, I’m sure she didn’t mean it.” Laurie replied.

Moira broke out in a grin.

“Actually, most of it was true. James can be a little arrogant but its expected-he’s a teenage boy, but he’s a good kid really…takes after his father.” Moira replied. She paused thoughtfully before adding.

“Actually, Lily just might be what he needs to deflate his head a bit.”

“You’re right Moira, they may be better for each other than they think.” Laurie Evans said a smile playing on her lips as well.

 

**A/N:** So what do you all think? This is only the second Lily/James fic I've ever attempted to write so any feedback you could give would be much appreciated!

 

take care! 

**Luminous Star**

* * *


	2. A Few Arguments

**  
**

**Chapter 2: A Few Arguments:**

Lily stalked all the way out of the Potter’s house, down the street, through the front door of her house, up the steps, and finally into her medium sized room where she slammed the door shut before flinging herself onto her bed face down. She grabbed a pillow and pressed her face into it hard, so that it was between her head and the bed, letting out the piercing scream she had been wanting to ever since she had seen James descend the stairs. The sounds of her screaming became muffled and almost inaudible as they reverberated through the soft pillow. Lily heard the door to her room open and the sounds of footsteps nearing her bed but didn’t bother to lift her face from its new cavern.

“Lily?” Came her mother’s voice.  
“I’m not listening…” Lily replied, her calm voice muffled but still easy to make out. “I’m not listening because this is all a dream which means that you aren’t really talking to me and that James Potter really isn’t living next door. Everything that just happened in the past twenty minutes was a figment of my frightening imagination- a mere nightmare that I am about to wake up from.”  
“Oh, stop being so dramatic and misunderstood Lily! Come on, it wasn’t all that bad. I think the Potters seem like very nice people.” Laurie commented to her daughter.  
“It’s not exactly the Potter family I have a problem with mum,” Lily explained, still speaking into the pillow. “just one in particular.”  
“Come on, sweetie, he can’t be all that bad.” 

At this comment, Lily slowly raised her head from the pillow and brought herself to sit on the edge of her bed properly. Lily stared at her mother through the emerald orbs that were her eyes, looking much like a pensive owl than a teenage girl. 

“You’re right mum, he’s not all that bad…you know, aside from the jinxing, the hair ruffling, the teasing, the merciless hexes toward anyone he pleases, the arrogant attitude…” Lily stopped and thought for a moment. “Oh right, and we can’t possibly forget the fact that he _stalked me_ continuously for the better part of three years! Nope, mum, you’re completely right, he’s not all that bad at all!” Lily finished sardonically.  
“Ok, ok, I get it miss sarcasm.” Laurie said through a faint laugh as Lily shot her mum a death glare. “But the way I see it is…you can either sit here and sulk over a seemingly terrible situation, or make the most of it.” 

Lily stood up, her arms crossed over her chest and walked over to the window, gazing out at the adjacent room that looked directly into hers next door. Her mother was one of the smartest women that she ever met, and Lily knew she had a point. It was just so hard for her to see that she was right as she watched James tack up yet another Quiddich poster to the wall of his new room. Lily watched until James walked out of his new room and shut the door behind him. She sighed exasperatedly before turning to face her mother once more. 

“I know mum, its just so hard…you’d know that if you had to be around him the whole school year like I do.” Lily whined.  
“Well, no one said the choice between what is right and what is easy wasn’t difficult honey.” Laurie replied wisely.  
Lily nodded her head pensively before responding. “You’re right mum.”  
“I didn’t say it to be right darling.”  
“I know, but you are anyway,” Lily replied. “I guess…I should try to be nicer to Potter…I just don’t really know how to go about it.” Lily replied sitting down once more. “I’ve just been hating him for so long, and he makes it so easy…” she trailed off.  
“Well…maybe you could start by calling him James instead of Potter.” Laurie commented.  
Lily laughed. “I guess I could try that, mum.” 

The door creaked opened and Jeff Evans’ head peeped through the minute crack.  
“Oh! There you two are, I was looking for you.” He replied good naturedly.  
“Well, you found us dear.” Laurie said to her husband.  
“Indeed I did.” Jeff answered as he walked over and kissed his wife on the cheek.  
“So, kiddo!... did you go meet the neighbors?” Jeff asked Lily.  
“Yup, I did dad…mum and I just came from there.” Lily answered.  
“Huh! Well we must’ve just missed each other because I just met them too.”  
“Oh, you met Moira then daddy?”  
“Who?- Oh, no! David.” Jeff replied taking a seat next to Lily on the bed. “Moira is his wife right? Yes, he told me that was her name, but I didn’t meet her…is she nice?” Jeff asked.  
“Yes, very.” Laurie replied.  
“Well, that David’s a very nice bloke too, they seem like a very nice family…speaking of family, David says they have a son, did you know that Lily?” Jeff replied not waiting for Lily to answer yes or no. “Anyway, we got to talking, and when David mentioned he had a son and told me how old he was- Jim I think his name was- I mentioned you Lils.” Jeff paused once more, but not long enough for Lily to get a word in. “Anyway, like I was saying, David mentioned that his boy didn’t really know the town or anyone around here yet and I told him that you’d be happy to show him around tomorrow, Lils! Doesn’t that sound like fun?”  
Lily, who had been sitting at the edge of the bed as her father was talking suddenly fell off with a loud THUNK!

“Lily, are you alright dear?” Jeff asked his daughter.  
“You _what_?!” Lily asked angrily as she picked herself up off the ground. “You WHAT?!”  
“I told David that you’d be happy to show Jim around tomorrow.” Jeff replied normally as if Lily weren’t obviously angry.  
“James, dad. His name is JAMES!” Lily retorted angrily.  
“Oh! That’s it! You’re right Lily, his name is James.” Jeff said finally remembering.  
“As in JAMES POTTER!” Lily said heatedly, her dad finally noticing just how angry the subject was making her.  
“Hold on a tick…that name sounds familiar…” Jeff Evans replied, as he tried to put a finger on just why. “Wait- you mean he’s the one who- but he can’t be a- you mean you and him go to-, oh dear.”

Lily answered every one of her father’s unfinished questions with a sarcastic nod. Yes, he was the horrible boy she had written home about, yes, he was a wizard, yes she and him did go to the same school, and oh dear was most certainly right. “And now, thanks to you, I’m not only suck living next to the insufferable prat, but now I have to spent the whole effing day with him as well!  
" Thanks a lot dad!” Lily retorted, obviously angered.  
“Look, Lily, I didn’t know it would be such a big deal, I just thought it would be something nice to offer and I thought you wouldn’t mind-” Jeff said, trying to apologize for his mistake.  
“Why does everyone always think I won’t mind anything?! I mean do I have it tattooed somewhere on my forehead or something?!” Lily ranted. “Everytime something comes up its always ‘oh, its alright Lily won’t mind doing this or that.’ What about Petunia?! Couldn’t you have volunteered her? She’s only a year older dad, and don’t give me the whole magic excuse because you didn’t even know until I told you!”  
“Lily, I think you need to calm down.” Her mother said sternly. “Your father obviously didn’t know it would bother you so much or else he wouldn’t have said anything. Besides, do I need to remind you of what we talked about before he came in? About making the most of a seemingly bad situation? Because I seem to recall you agreeing with me.”  
“Yeah, mum, but that was before I knew I’d have to start TOMORROW!” Lily bellowed.  
“Look, Lily, I know you may not like this, but what’s done is done…there’s nothing we can do about it now, so you’re just going to have to deal with it.” Laurie Evans stated firmly.  
“URGH! I HATE THIS! This is totally and completely going to ruin EVERYTHING! URGH!” Lily all but screamed as she pushed past her parents and ran out her bedroom door in anger. 

She was not one to completely lash out at her parents, that was Petunia’s unwritten job, so it was needless to say that she probably left them thunderstruck back in her room.  
_Good!_ Lily thought savagely. _Maybe now they’ll realize that I’m not as predictable as they think I am!_  
Lily had to get out of the house- she felt as if she was suffocating. The houses on either side of hers were not divided with white picket fences, but with medium sized hedges instead. Each house on her block had medium sized hedges running down their sides that separated the properties, and Lily had discovered long ago that one could easily fit between the two hedges and into a sort of hidden tunnel the two made as they joined at the top. This is where she had hidden on many occasions in the past to get away from the world. So without a moments hesitation, she pulled back the few branches that hid the tunnel opening from view and stepped in and began walking toward the middle where the tunnel opened a bit wider, not bothering to look at her surroundings and knowing that she wouldn’t find anyone there. Lily jumped back as she suddenly came face to face with the one person she really didn’t want to see at the moment. James Potter jumped about two feet in the air, clearly shocked to have come face to face with Lily once more. He quickly hid something behind his back while simultaneously trying to brush away a small cloud of smoke that had begun to form around his head. 

_Just my bloody luck!_ Lily thought internally while she spoke.  
“Potter! What the fuck are you doing here?! You scared the shit out of me!”  
“Um…n-nothing!” James replied quickly. “Lovely, day isn’t it?” he replied gaining his usual composure once more.  
Lily however was too smart and didn’t buy the façade for one second. “James, I’m not stupid you know, so stop trying to act so innocent-“  
“I was _born_ innocent, Lily darling.” James cut in.  
“That may be, James Potter, but your innocence didn’t last very long did it?” Lily scoffed. “And stop trying to hide that cigarette behind your back. Like I said, I’m not stupid.”  
“What? This?” James asked pulling his hand with the cigarette back out. “This isn’t mine, I just uh-found it on the ground and decided to pick it up, you know the whole ‘Smokey Bear says ‘Only you can prevent forest fires.’’ And what not…just figured I’d do my part in helping keep society safe.” 

James could have told her the truth, that it was in fact his, but for some reason he didn’t. James was a natural at making up excuses on the spot, something he had become good at from being part of the Marauders, and most people usually believed the stories too. Apparently Lily wasn’t one of those people though.  
“Potter, I’ve known you almost half my life, which means you’ve been following me around for about a fourth of it at least. Do yourself a favor and stop lying, you’re wasting time and energy because I can see right through you. You’re like cellophane.”  
“Really?” James asked looking a bit hurt at the fact that he was being compared to a clear plastic, almost as if he wasn’t there at all.  
Lily stopped and couldn’t help but take pity on the boy.  
_Why do I have to be so bloody nice?!_  
“No, not really, because if you were, it’d make ignoring you a lot easier. But I know you’re lying, James. I’ve lived here my whole life and no one knows about this place except for me and now unfortunately you.” Lily replied. James’ face lifted a bit at her proclamation, but he still didn’t say anything more. “Besides, why do you care what I think anyway? It’s you’re body, not mine. I could care less what you decide to do or put in it.” Lily added.  
“I was just-what I meant to say is-” James tried, his sentence coming out tongue tied. He took a breath and started over. “Look, I usually don’t do this type of thing Lily.” He explained before he got cut off.  
“God! Why does everyone treat me so delicately?! I’m not a child! And how many times do I have to tell you that I don’t bloody care what you do with your own ruddy body?! Do you think me that innocent that you can’t even smoke a bloody cigarette around me?!” Lily asked irritated and angered both from James and from the quarrel she had had with her parents moments before.  
“You- you’re right Lily.” James replied, looking her in the eyes before bringing the cigarette to his lips and sucking on it. James inhaled the first puff of smoke thinking it tasted terrible, forcing himself not to choke and vowing never to smoke again or decide to be adventurous and try anything harder than fire whiskey. Lily watched as he blew out the smoke before speaking once more.

“So…can I have a drag?” Lily asked suddenly, making James almost fall back from the shock.  
“Um-I don’t think you-” James started to say before Lily cut him off.  
“James Bloody Potter! I didn’t ask you for a lecture! If I wanted one, I would have gone and asked my mum! Besides, I think I’m old enough to make my own decisions.” Lily said her temper firing up again.  
“You’re right Lily.” James replied for the second time. “I’m sorry. Yeah, here.” He said handing her the burning cigarette. 

Lily took it in her fingers, holding expertly, and flicking off the extra ash that had begun to form before looking James straight in the eye and bringing it up to her rosy lips. James watched her, trying as hard as he could to keep his jaw from falling to the ground. How she could make anything – even something as gross as smoking- look sexy was beyond him. Just as quickly as her lips had touched the edge of the cigarette however, Lily let it drop to the ground. And still looking James straight in the eyes, Lily spoke,  
“Even if it is your body James, and even if you only do it or did it because you were stressed, it’s still bad for you…and it makes kissing a right pain for your partner.” And with that, Lily squished the butt and extinguished the cigarette, before turning on her heel and leaving James to think about what she had said. James ran through the last bit of his conversation with Lily.  
_‘…and it makes kissing a right pain for your partner.’_  
James smiled and followed her out, leaving the first and last cigarette of his life behind, a new glimmer of hope for something more with Lily carrying him back into his new home.  
“Maybe this won’t be as bad after all.” 

***************

**A/N:**

Thank you to those who reviewed chapter one of my story. 

About that last scene with Lily, James, and a cigarette. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone. I just wanna make it clear that I don’t smoke and that I think it is a nasty habit but I have nothing against those who do- like lily said, it’s their body. Anyway, I hope you all got my drift that it was just a one time thing. James is a teenager after all, he’s bound to experiment…but he will lead a smoke free life from now on! I guess that’s about it for now.

as always, reviews would be much appreciated! 

Love ya!  
~Pamela 


	3. 'Well, It's A Start'

**  
**

**Chapter 3: ‘Well, It’s A Start’**

Lily smiled slightly as she walked back to her house, proud that she had left James thoroughly dumbstruck. 

Even so, she was still irritated at the fact that she would have to live next door to him, and the promise of having to take him out and around the town tomorrow, loomed over her like a dark rain cloud which refused to shed a drop of water.

She reached for the knob of her front door and stopped in mid action, turning to face the view. The air was cool as it whipped the hair out of her face and the sun was slowly inching lower and lower. The sky was painted in colors of orange and pink and Lily watched as the final rays of the sun cascaded warmly around the hillsides, signaling the end of the day. It was moments like these where Lily truly knew that the world must stop- that anything was possible, that there had to be something more out there if something this natural and beautiful could exist. Sighing, she finally entered her home once more and proceeded into the dining room. She helped Petunia set the table, at the request of her mother and finally sat down to a quiet dinner with her family.

The Potters sat around a rectangular table to a dinner of Chinese take-out not having been able to go grocery shopping yet. After digging up a telephone from  a box of muggle objects David Potter had brought home from work, they had placed their order and gotten it delivered.

 James prodded curiously at a funny looking lump in his soup looking strangely at it before looking up at his mother.

“Are you sure this stuff is edible mum?” he asked warily.

“Of course it is James.” Moira replied, a hint of amusement in her voice. “It’s called a won-ton.”

“Looks more like a brain to me.” James muttered still looking skeptically at the thing his mother was calling food.

“Eat it dear. It’s good, I promise.” Moira said, assuring James.

James gave one more skeptical look at his mother before spooning up the strange looking thing and taking a bite finding it to taste rather good after all.

“So,” Mr. Potter said, initiating a conversation, “I met our new neighbor today when I was coming in earlier, Jeff Evans, was his name.” 

“Did you, dear? I met his wife Laurie earlier, very nice woman-” Moira replied.

“Well, that’s nice dear, anyway,” David replied cutting off his wife. “I was talking to Jeff and he mentioned he had a daughter around James’ age and _he said_ that he was sure that she’d be happy to show James around the town tomorrow. Doesn’t that sound nice James?” 

“Huh?” James replied, having been completely spaced out.

“Jeff Evans, James. Our new neighbor, he said his daughter would be more than happy to show you around tomorrow.” David repeated.

“Lily? Lily Evans _actually_ agreed to go somewhere with me?!” James said flabbergasted.

“Lily? Oh! You mean Jeff’s daughter, right. Well, she wasn’t exactly _there_ but Jeff assured me that he knew she’d be more than happy to.” David stated before adding. “But, more importantly, how do you know Lily, James? Did you meet her earlier?”

James opened his mouth to speak before his mother cut him off.

“Actually, dear, Lily and her mum came over to introduce themselves; they brought us a nice batch of cookies, turns out that when I called James down to meet them, he and Lily already knew each other.” 

“But, how?”“She goes to Hogwarts with James, dear.”

“You mean she’s a witch? But the ministry said that this was a muggle community.”

“It is, dad. Lily’s muggle born- her family are all muggles.”

“Oh, well that explains it…but why wouldn’t she want to spend time with you son?”

“Dad…” James began trying to explain exactly how Lily felt about him. “Remember when I got off the train this year for the summer hols?”

“Yes,” David replied looking pensively at his son and telling him to procede.

“Well…do you remember what _happened_ on the platform?” James asked.

 

“JAMES POTTER!” shrieked an all too familiar voice from behind.

James turned around to see a familiar red headed, green eyed girl stalking over toward him.

“You called Evans?” James drawled.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lily asked holding up a piece of parchment and waving it around his face.

“That would be called an _address_ Evans, you should know that.” James stated smoothly.

“I know what it is you dolt!” Lily replied furiously. “I want to know why you gave it to me!”

“Well…I thought that maybe you could write to me sometime over the summer…what do ya say?” 

Lily let out a sarcastic laugh. “Don’t you think that I could find something better to do with my time Potter?”

“I could think of something better you could do instead.” James replied a hint of mischief in his eyes.

“Oh, and what’s that?” Lily spat scathingly.

“You could go out with me.” James stated arrogantly.

He had crossed the line. Before, Lily had just been mad. Now she was furious.

“You are the most egotistical prat that I have ever had the misfortune to meet Potter!” Lily replied, her eyes now positively raging with fire as she raised her wand, and pointed it at James.

“N-now L-Lily, don’t you think you’re taking this a little too seriously? N-no n-need to get violent eh?” James replied slowly backing up and beginning to fear for his physical well being.

An evil smile played on Lily’s lips as she walked toward him.

“You should have thought of that before, then Potter.” She said in a low tone.

Lily muttered a few well chosen words and a yellow light burst from the tip of her wand, hitting James square in the face with a bat bogey hex.

She smiled satisfactorily as she turned on her heel and left the platform to meet her parents.

 

 

David Potter practically howled with laughter as James reminded him of the incident, receiving a deathly glare from his son but not stopping until his wife shot him a look of her own.

“Honestly David! You’re as bad as James and Sirius!”

David Potter cleared his throat and coughed before regaining his serious parental composure.

“Sorry, son.” He replied deeply

Seeing that her husband would be no help, Moira decided to take over the conversation.

“Knowing you dear, you probably did _something_ to deserve that hex?” she stated.

James looked at his plate sheepishly before muttering a 

“ _maybe_ …” and trailing off his sentence. 

He chanced a look at his mother and father, who looked at him knowingly.

“Alright, I _may have_ done _something_   to deserve it-” James replied before quickly adding, “But she’s just so easy to tick off! I can’t help it, its like it doesn’t matter what I do. If I crack a joke, she hates me, if I compliment her, she hates me, if I ask her out, she hates me. Nothing I do will ever be good enough for Lily Evans.” James rambled.

Moira shot David a look before standing up to clear the dishes leaving the two boys to talk.

“Sounds to me like you kinda like her son.” David said stating the obvious.

“Yeah…I do...” James replied shaking his head. “But it doesn’t matter, she’s made it perfectly clear that given the choice between me and the giant squid, it most definitely wouldn’t be me.”

“Aw! Come on, Jimmy-boy! You’re a Potter! And a Potter never gives up! Do you think I’d have married your mum if I’d listened the first time she’d told me to jump out the Astronomy tower window?”

James laughed a bit and let his father continue.

“Take this summer as an opportunity to show her who you really are…maybe turn on some of the ‘ole Potter charm…” David trailed off as a grin tugged on James’ lips.

“Who knows…she may even come around.”

James heaved a sigh, before answering.

“Alright dad, I guess one more shot won’t hurt.”

“Be ready tomorrow at ten?” David asked his son.

“Alright.” James replied as he stood up and stretched. “I guess I’m gonna head up to my room then.”

“That’s fine…g’ night son.” David replied.

And with that, James trudged up the stairs and into his new room.

He lay in his bed reading _Quiddich_ _Fan Magazine_ until finally falling asleep, fully clothed atop his new bed.

 

 

_She was running through a forest. The trees were thick all around her. Lily felt disoriented and lost. She sat at the foot of a large oak tree, suddenly feeling an immense wave of sadness wash over her. She was crying, the taste of fresh salty tears on her tongue as she sobbed and shook involuntarily._

“Lily.” _said a distant but familiar voice. It seemed so far away._

_She looked up, startled to see a brilliant white stag standing in front of her. The beautiful creature slowly stepped closer, bending its head and nudging one of her hands with its head. Lily stopped sobbing, the last of her tears streaming down her face and stood up, gazing into the warm eyes of the stag. He nuzzled the side of her face and then started walking away. Lily stood there, watching the stag intently._

“Lily!” _the same voice called to he._

_The stag turned around and looked into her eyes once more, ‘follow me’ it seemed to say._

_And she did. He led her through the forest, the trees seeming to become thicker and thicker. More than once, Lily though the animal would turn around and tell her there was no way out-that she would be stuck there forever and then leave her. But the white stag never did. He trudged through the trees expertly, gracefully, with nobility. Then, the trees became less clustered, the sun shown through the branches again, and she could see the trees clearing up ahead._

_The stag stopped and Lily looked around. She was at the edge of the forest a large open meadow at her feet and just beyond that, she could see her hometown. The stag had helped her out of the forest._

_She turned to look at him, amazed at the intelligence she found in his eyes, thinking maybe staying in the forest with this animal wouldn’t be so bad._

“Lily, you have to get up now!” _the same voice said yet again, only now it was closer. Lily felt her body shake only this time it was from some outside source._

_She looked back at the stag and he nudged her until she had stepped fully into the clearing._

_  
_

Lily’s eyes snapped open and she found herself gazing  up at the familiar pearl color of her walls. She wasn’t in a forest- she was in her room, in her bed.

“Oh, good, you’re awake! I was afraid I was going to have to use the Jaws of Life to get you up.” 

“Mum?” Lily asked, still confused and slightly disoriented.

Laurie surveyed her daughter before going over and putting a hand to her forehead.

“Are you feeling alright dear?”

“Yeah, mum. I’m fine.” Lily replied, “It’s nothing really, I just had the _strangest_ dream that’s all.”

Laurie looked at Lily skeptically before accepting her response.

“Well, alright. You’d better get up then, James and his father will be here in about fifteen minutes-”

“ _FIFTEEN MINUTES?!_ ” Lily shrieked shooting up out of her bed faster than lightning.

“And you couldn’t have woken me sooner mum?” Lily added sounding distressed.

“Well, I’ll leave you to get ready then.” Her mum replied through a stifled laugh, 

Leaving Lily’s room unnoticed by her teenage daughter who was running around like a chicken with her head cut off.

As soon as her mum had left the room, Lily stripped fully out of her night clothes and draped a towel around her body making a beeline for the bathroom just across the hall.

She turned the knob and hopped in, letting out a loud yelp as the ice cold water touched her fair skin and adjusting the water to a more comfortable temperature.

She showered in record time (five minutes to be exact) and toweled off haphazardly before wrapping the large towel clumsily around her petite frame and dashing to her room once more.

Lily swore loudly as she stubbed her toe on the nightstand but ignored the pain as she decided on what to wear, in the end choosing a nice pair of snug fitting capris and a powder blue tank top. 

Never being one to wear much make up, Lily quickly lined her eyes with brown eyeliner and ran a layer of mascara through her lashes, before drying her hair slightly, allowing its naturally waviness to show. She grabbed a tube of cherry chapstick from her dresser and three twenty pound notes which she stuffed into her pockets before grabbing a white hair tie from the post of her bed and putting it on her wrist. Lastly, she grabbed her wand (just to be safe) and after putting a concealment charm on it (she had turned of age two moths ago) so the muggles wouldn’t see it, placed it in her right pocket.

She was half way down the stairs before she realized that she didn’t have her shoes. Groaning loudly, Lily raced back up and pulled on the same worn out white sneakers from the previous day before bounding down the stairs yet again.

She stood in the hall just outside the living room distinctly hearing the sound of chitchat coming from within, Lily took a moment to catch her breath, checking herself once over in the mirror that hung on the hall wall and finally walking into the room.

A man in his early forties sat next to her father on the long couch listening intently as her father explained exactly how a record player worked.

He  was hansom, with a good natured face and there was no denying that he was James’ father. He had the same unruly black hair and the same lanky yet tall muscular build but his eyes were blue, not hazel. 

Lily caught herself thinking that if James aged as well as his father, it wouldn’t be a bad thing as she caught sight of him sitting next to his dad.

As if sensing her gaze, James looked up at her. Lily smiled slightly at him before Jeff Evans took note of her daughter’s presence in the room.

“Oh, there you are Lily.”

“Morning dad.” She replied grinning and walking over.

David, James, and her dad all stood up as she walked over and placed a kiss on her father’s cheek. Lily then turned and looked at the two Potters.

“David Potter.” James’ dad said holding out a hand for her to shake. “It’s nice to finally meet you Lily.”

Lily took his hand and shook it.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Potter.” She replied with a smile.

“Please, call me David,” David Potter said, trailing off. “I’d introduce my son, James, but apparently you’ve already met.”

Lily laughed.

“Yeah…hey James.” She said, turning to look at him.

_‘James? Well, that’s new.’_ James thought.

“Hey Lily.” James replied, hoping that he didn’t sound as surprised by her calling him by his first name as he was.

But Lily had, and a slight smile tugged on her lips.

“Well, we’d better get going…ready James?” Lily asked nicely, but not waiting for him to respond. “We’ll be back later tonight…Bye daddy! Bye Mr. Potter- I mean David.”

Lily added before opening the front door and bounding out of it.

James stood there for another moment before realizing that he was supposed to follow her.  He muttered a quick goodbye to Mr. Evans and his dad before heading out the front door after Lily.

“Have fun you two!” David called, a smile beginning to form at the corners of his mouth as she watched his son catch up with the red head.

 

Lily slowed her pace, allowing James to fall into step with her.

“Your dad seems nice, James.” Lily stated trying to initiate a conversation. 

James heard Lily call him by his first name once more, but couldn’t stop his jaw from falling open.

Lily slowed down and turned her head to look at him.

“You know, James, if you don’t shut your mouth, you’re likely to swallow a bug.” She replied teasingly.

“Huh?” James asked confused.

“James, what’s going on?” Lily replied, getting slightly irritated but keeping her temper down.

“Th-that! What you just did! That’s what’s going on!” He replied finally able to string words together in a coherent sentence.

“What are you talking about James?” Lily asked.

“There! See you just did it again!” James stated flabbergasted.

“Did _what, exactly_ James.” Lily asked.

“Call me ‘James’!” James replied.

“Well, that _is_ your name isn’t it?” Lily replied laughing slightly. “and I _have_ called you James before.”

“Yeah, but not unless you were adding another not so lovely word along with it!” James accused.

“Well, would you rather me go back to calling you ‘Potter’?” Lily asked.

“No!” James replied quickly. “It’s just…well…don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but you’ve just never been this nice to me that’s all.”

Lily stopped walking and turned to face him fully.

“Well, if you want I can hit you with a bat-bogey-hex for old time’s sake.” Lily replied seriously.

A look of dread passed over James’ features and Lily laughed.

“It was a _joke_ , James. As in _ha, ha_.”  Lily added sarcastically.

“If there’s one think I’ve learned from you Lily Evans, it’s to take all your threats seriously.” James replied shuddering at past memories of Lily cursing him.

“Look, James.” Lily began. “ _Honestly…_ I’m still not too thrilled with the whole you living next door thing, and before you say anything, I have a good reason, mind you, to feel that way. To put it nicely, you’ve been kind of a prat in the past few years.” 

“Well, you haven’t exactly been an angel yourself Lily.” James objected.

“James! I’m trying to compromise here!” Lily retorted getting slightly annoyed.

“ _Really?_ Because it kind of sounds like you’re trying to list all of my flaws again.” 

“Why do you always have to make everything so hard?!” Lily asked.

“I don’t always do that!” 

“Yes you do! I was trying to tell you that even though this isn’t the _best_ situation that we should at least be civil toward one another, because like it or not…we’re kinda stuck living next door to each other!” Lily stated her voice rising.

“ _We_ should try? Lily, in case you haven’t noticed, you never seem to be on the _receiving_ end of _any_ curses when we get into arguments, so if anyone has to be _civil_ it’s you.” James retorted.

Lily opened her mouth to reply before another voice cut her off.

Only this time, it was not James’.

James and Lily turned toward the voice and James noted that Lily’s eyes narrowed slightly as the girl approached them.

There was no denying that she was pretty, whoever she was. She was tall and slender with an hourglass figure wearing one of the shortest skirts James had ever seen (and mind you he _had_ seen quite a few.) her red top was tight and it looked as if she would have to cut herself out if it later, but showed quite a bit of cleavage, which was of course the desired effect she had been going for. Her perfectly groomed hair was a shiny golden honey color and swayed lightly as she walked.  Her mouth, which was painted an shiny red quirked into a smile as she stopped in front of them and spoke in a fake sweet voice.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Lily Evans…it’s been quite a while hasn’t it?”

“Not nearly long enough Anderson.” Lily replied in the same tone using her surname.

James could feel the tension between the two girls, thinking it best to remain unnoticed for the time being though, kept quiet.

“I’m hurt Lily.” The girl replied gasping and placing a hand over her chest.

“Well, _break my heart_!” Lily spat sarcastically. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go find someone with a few more brain cells to talk to…makes the conversation much more interesting you know.”

The girl’s ice blue eyes narrowed and she tossed a sheet of her perfect hair over her shoulder as her cheeks tainted scarlet.

James laughed but covered it instantly with a cough, finding Lily’s come backs quite amusing now that they weren’t directed toward himself.

The girl looked at him for the first time, standing there next to Lily. Her facial expression changed immediately. She shot Lily a look that clearly stated ‘ _pay back time’_

Before turning to James once more and speaking with quite a different voice.

“Hey there, I was so caught up in our little reunion.” She gestured between Lily and herself. “that I didn’t notice you there…quite rude of her not to introduce us huh? I’m Marilyn, Marilyn Anderson.” 

“James Potter.” James replied taking the hand she had held out and shaking it.

“It’s nice to meet you James.” Marilyn replied in a feathery voice.“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before though, are you here on holiday?”

“No, actually I just moved into the neighborhood…Lily was nice enough to show me around today.”

Marilyn smiled sweetly as she saw her opportunity.

“Well, now that _we’ve_ met, you don’t have to hang around with her anymore.” Marilyn replied batting her eyelashes.

“What?” James asked disbelievingly, finally catching onto what Marilyn was trying to do. 

Marilyn giggled slightly taking James’ tone for clueless-ness than for what it really was.

“You are a cutie aren’t you?” she replied as she stepped closer to him and ran the tips of her fingers down his arm, starting from his shoulder.

 “How about you let me show you around the town… I’m sure I could show you a few _interesting_ things that Lily over there never could.” Marilyn drawled suggestively.

James shuddered internally. This girl was really laying it on thick and he caught himself wondering if many more muggle girls behaved with the same amount of self respect as she did.

“Um…” James stuttered. “no thanks…I-”

“James it’s alright, you don’t have to pretend to like her to spare her feelings…everyone knows she’s a loser anyway.” Marilyn replied gesturing toward Lily.

James turned to look at her, Lily had averted her eyes to the floor looking dejected and so out of her being. The Lily Evans he knew was strong and never let anyone get to her. And yet, here she was looking like a wounded bird.

 Did she honestly think he would choose a tart like Marilyn over her? James thought as he watched Lily slowly turn away and start walking down the street. 

 

Lily hated Marilyn with a passion; she had ever since they had been in grade school where she had made her life a living hell on earth. And what she hated even more was that she could still get to her. But there was no way she was upset because James was about to chose Marilyn over her…right?

 

James turned towards Marilyn once more, flashing a forced smile which she none the less looked pleased about.

“Actually, I’d really like to, love but I can’t at the moment…can you take a rain check?”

“I guess, that could be arranged.” She replied silkily “Name the time and place hansom.”

“Alright...” James replied placing a finger on his chin as if deep in thought. “How ‘bout I meet you here at the end of the next millennium?”

Marilyn’s smile suddenly faded away.

“Hold on. Are you actually turning _me_ down?” She asked astounded.

“Gee…you’re smarter than you look.” James replied sarcastically.

“ But no one ever turns me down! I don’t think you know what you’re refusing here.” She replied, her voice suddenly becoming a tad venomous.

“Trust me I know more than you think. And I just _did_ turn you down.” James spat looking at her distastefully.

“So you’re saying that you’re _honestly_ going to chose _her_ over _me._ ” Marilyn replied shocked.

James let out a hollow laugh.

“I’d chose Lily over you or _anyone_ else for that matter any day. She’s much more amazing than you’ll ever be.”

And with that, James brushed past her proceeding to catch up with Lily.

“Lily! Hey, Lily! Wait up!” James called out to her.

Lily stopped and turned around.

“Only five minutes Potter? I thought you’d at least last ten what with your reputation at school.” Lily replied scathingly.

“Do you believe everything you hear in the girl’s bathroom?” James asked.

“No…but after the thousandth time it kinda speaks for itself doesn’t it?...seriously though, where’s Marilyn shouldn’t she be _showing_ you some things right about now?”

“Do you honestly think I would have taken her up on that offer?”

“I dunno, it sounded pretty tempting.”

“Well I’m glad to know that you think of me as such a man-whore. Honestly, Lily I _have_ _some_ morals.”

“Hmm, that’s interesting. Well, I guess you learn something new everyday huh? But seriously, James if you want to hang out with her instead of me go ahead.”

James laughed.

“Is that what this is about Lily? Did you think I’d pick her over you?”

“I really don’t care what you pick James because I don’t care about you remember?”

“Lily, I’d never pick-”

“Just don’t say anything James, whatever suave comment is about to come out of your mouth, just don’t. I honestly don’t want or need it.”

Lily turned and started walking once more.

“Lily.” James replied pleadingly from where she had left him standing.

His voice had made her stop, but she still kept her back toward him.

“She doesn’t even hold a candle to you…honestly. No one does.”

It sounded so sweet, and apart of Lily that still believed in fairy tales and Prince Charmings wanted to believe what he was saying. Bu this was James Potter, for all she knew, it could very well be a line.

Even so, she sighed and turned her body half way to look at him. His face was unreadable as he stood there. 

“You coming or what, James?” 

James brought his gaze up from the ground and gave her a lopsided grin which oddly enough, didn’t annoy Lily as much as it usually did as he caught up with her.

They fell into step once more, walking in silence.

“Lily.” James said finally.

“Hmm?”

“What’s with you and Marilyn? I mean, why do you hate each other?”

Lily sighed, and James thought maybe she wouldn’t answer, but then finally she spoke.

“We knew each other when we were kids. We went to grammar school together…until I got my Hogwarts letter.” Lily paused and thought. “I guess we just never really got along, she never really liked me,” Lily trailed off , “I remember coming home so many times in tears because she had spilled glue on my new shoes or cut off my hair ribbons, or something along those lines.” She laughed bitterly.

James paused for a moment before looking at her seriously.

“Want me to hex her for ya?” 

Lily laughed slightly but gave him a stern look.

“James, I’m trying to be serious.”

“Alright, sorry, I’ll be serious I promise.” James replied, and keeping to his word, he responded seriously. “But now you’re older Lily…why do you still let her bother you? You’re such a strong person.”

“I dunno.” Lily paused for a moment and thought before answering. “I guess, even if you’re older, some things from your past can still seem intimidating.”

James nodded, knowingly and they walked in silence once more until James nudged her shoulder slightly causing her to veer to the right.

Lily smiled, and nudged him back.

She looked sideways at him and he grinned.

“I still don’t like you yet.” She replied matter-of-factly.

“I know,” James replied looking ahead and then back at her with the cutest expression of wonder on his face. “But are you getting there?-To liking me?” 

Lily looked at him before gazing forward again. James kept his gaze on her face waiting for an answer.

“I guess you could say so.” Lily finally replied.

James smiled and looked ahead at the rolling hills dotted with trees squinting his eyes a bit from the sun thinking about what Lily had just said.

_'Well, it’s a start.’_

 

  



	4. Pennies and the Question Game

** Chapter 4: Pennies and the Question Game  **

 

****Lily glanced over at James through the corner of her eye. He was wearing a thoughtful expression and Lily couldn’t help but think that it was kind of nice to have James as company. She must have been staring for too long because suddenly James’ hazel eyes met hers and the familiar sensation one gets when they are caught shot through her body. Lily felt her cheeks begin to redden as she waited for the inevitable to occur. Yup, any minute now, James was going to rumple up his hair, flash his most seductive smile her way, and say something witty and roughly along the lines of _‘See anything you like Evans?’_

Instead, James grinned at her genuinely, slightly embarrassed himself for no apparent reason whatsoever. Lily often did that to him, much as he hated to admit it. 

“What?” he asked. 

Lily stopped and composed herself. The way he had said it was in no way suggestive or sarcastic. This was obviously not what she had expected James Potter to say—at least the arrogant James Potter she knew who never missed a chance to make a smart remark. Lily shoved her right hand in her pocket and her fingers fell on a small and cool circle shaped object. 

“Um…penny for your thoughts?” she replied finally, pulling out the penny she had found in her pocket and flicking it over with her thumb in James’ direction.

“What’s a _penny_?” James asked catching what Lily had tossed to him and examining it closely.

“You’re holding one.” Lily replied simply. James looked at her again, still wearing the same confused expression as before, which was Lily’s cue to elaborate. 

“It’s muggle currency.” She explained. James looked up at her again still fingering the small coin between his fingers.

“Wait, I thought muggles used pounds in England.” James replied knowingly. 

“We do, this is muggle currency in America.” Lily explained. 

“So all muggles don’t use the same type of money?” 

“Nope, Lily responded.

“With wizards, wherever you go its galleons, sickles, and knuts because wizards only have Gringotts as their bank. But the muggle world is so much bigger, it’s just impossible for all of us to use the same type of money, so lots of countries have their own—Like America for example uses dollars and cents.” 

“And you just randomly carry around pennies and other types of money in your trouser pockets?” James enquired, trying hard not to make fun of her too much.

“I can think of stranger things to carry around in one’s pocket...” Lily replied smartly. “Oh yeah? Like what?” James asked playing along. 

“like a certain stolen golden snitch.” Lily replied grinning. James opened his mouth to reply but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead, he put his lips together once more and smiled. 

“Alright, I'll give you that.” James replied through his grin which slowly faded off of his face allowing his expression to become pensive once more.

“What?” Lily asked, figuring it was her turn to ask this time. 

“Well, I was just thinking—I never really understood what that expression meant, I mean I’ve heard it in passing and all—but still…” James trailed off, referring to the expression _‘a penny for your thoughts’_.

“Well, I guess it means you have to tell me what you were thinking at the time I asked you.” Lily replied thoughtfully. 

“I have to tell you _exactly_ what I was thinking?” James asked. 

Lily laughed at his obvious shocked expression. “Well, I guess you don’t _have to_ …” Lily trailed off before adding, “But, I’d _like_ to hear it.” 

“Well…” James began. “I guess I was just thinking about how nice it is to hang out with you and have you not judge me. I was thinking about how nice it is to just enjoy your company I guess.” 

Lily searched his deep hazel eyes for a moment before realizing that what he said was the genuine truth. She had often heard that eyes were the windows to one’s soul and James was the perfect example of how this was true. You could always tell how he was feeling if you searched the depths of his eyes long enough—at least if he wanted you to. The truth was however, Lily didn’t know how to respond to a comment like that from James. She wasn’t really used to the new way he was acting because she had never seen him like this before. _Or maybe, he’s always been like this and I’ve just been too much of a jerk to actually get to know the real him…_ Lily thought. 

“How about we play a game? It’s gonna take a while to get downtown anyway.” Lily suggested. 

“Alright, have any games in mind?” James said agreeing.

“Actually I do,” Lily replied grinning. James looked at her, clearly implying for her to explain what she had in mind. 

“Well, I was thinking, we don’t really know too much about each other, so maybe we could play the question game. So we’ll ask each other a question and then when the other has answered, we’ll answer the same question and then the next person will go. Get it?”

“So, I ask you a question, you answer, then I answer, then you ask me a question and we repeat the process?” James replied. 

“Yeah.” Lily replied. 

“What if one of us asks a question and the other doesn’t want to answer it?” James asked. 

“Well, I guess you _technically_ don’t have to answer if its something you strongly believe against, but it’s kinda like truth or dare but without the dare, other than that, the rules are, answer the questions and answer them truthfully…” Lily trailed off. “So, wanna play?” 

”I’m in.” James replied smiling “So, should I go first?” 

“Sure.”

“Ok…tell me about the penny—why did you have it in your pocket?” James asked. Lily smiled. “Oh, that! Alright.” She replied composing her thoughts. “Well, when I was younger, my dad used to take a lot of business trips to the states for the advertisement company he works for. I must have been about three or four when mum and him decided we should all go with him on one of the trips he was taking to California because we had relatives who lived down there. When we got there, my sister Petunia ate some strawberries and it turned out she was allergic, so my mum left me with my Aunt Rose while she took her to the doctor’s office. Anyway, Aunt Rose took me and my cousin Maggie who was my age to this park on the old saw mill that used to work in the Gold Rush era. Maggie and I got there and we were playing tag on the saw mill and trying to jump from one log to another. I was chasing her and then suddenly she stopped running and pointed to a penny on the ground.” Lily explained. “I was only four so I didn’t know what she meant, and then she explained what a penny was and how if you found a penny face up on the ground and picked it up, you would have good luck for the rest of the day. Then she said I should pick it up because she had found loads of lucky pennies before and because they didn’t have pennies back where I lived, so I did and then I put it in my pocket because I thought it was lucky. And even after I got back to England, I kept that penny with me everywhere I went,” Lily paused and then laughed. “My dad took a few more trips back to the states before his company finally said he could stop traveling and every time he would go, he would always ask me and my sister what we wanted him to bring back. Petunia would always choose something materialistic like clothes or makeup, but I always asked him to bring me back pennies.” Lily replied smiling. “I guess it’s just an old habit or something but I still almost always carry one around in my pocket even though I sort of stopped believing they were lucky around the same time I stopped believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth-Fairy.” Lily finished with a shrug. 

James smiled at the story before looking down at the penny she had given him in his hand. “So, do you want your penny back?” James asked holding it out to her in his palm. 

Lily looked down at it before putting her hand under his and closing his hand with hers. “No, why don’t you keep it, maybe it’ll bring you some luck.” She replied with a smile before dropping her hand from around his.

“Thanks.” James replied softly before putting it in his pant pocket.

“So, you’re turn.” Lily replied. 

“Well, I can’t exactly tell you about carrying around a penny seeing as how I didn’t know what it was until five minutes ago and because in the past I didn’t carry one around on a daily basis with me.” James replied good naturedly.

“Good point.” Lily remarked. “Tell me about why you used to carry around that golden snitch then.” 

James laughed as the memory flooded back to him. “Well, I guess it all started when Sirius and I were in this betting phase.” James began. “Since we were both on the Quiddich team, he bet he could nick his position’s ball before I could get mine, but since Sirius is a beater and bludgers move, he decided it wasn’t fair since I was a chaser and the quaffle is stationary. Since I was a seeker before I got bigger and switched to chaser, he decided I had to nick the golden snitch.” James explained. “Anyway, it was all set to happen at the Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw game at the beginning of the season so Sirius and I snuck down to the bottom of the pitch and waited till we could try and get the ball we were supposed to. Sirius knew I’d probably wait till the end of the game to steal the snitch so he thought he’d be smart and try and go for the bludger early, so he cast a charm on the bludger when it got close enough to him so it would stop moving and when it did, he went over to pick it up.” James trailed off. 

“So Sirius won the bet?” Lily asked. 

“Well, not _exactly_.” James replied. 

“What do you mean?” Lily asked skeptically.

“Well…Sirius wasn’t very good at charms to begin with and aside from that it’s really difficult to charm a Quiddich ball to do what you want it to because of the rules of the game,” James explained. “So when Sirius went to pick the bludger up, it stayed still for about five seconds before it kinda shot up and hit him in the face.” James explained. “So while everyone was trying to figure out what the bloody hell Sirius was doing on the pitch in the first place and if he was ok, the snitch flew down by my feet and I grabbed it in passing before going with Sirius up to see Madam Pomfrey.”

“So, you won then?” Lily asked.

“Well, technically yeah since Sirius never really picked up the bludger.” He replied. “After that I kinda forgot about the snitch until I opened the shoebox it was in and it started flying around, I thought it was kinda fun playing around with it so I never bothered to return it and I didn’t realize I was getting so much attention by playing with it until someone else pointed it out.” 

“Who was that?” Lily asked curiously. 

“Well you of course.” James replied. 

“Oh.” Lily replied smiling. 

“Your turn?” James replied figuring it was time for the next question. 

“Alright, hold on let me think…” Lily said looking up at the sky.  
“Ok, I got one.” Lily replied after a moment.“What was the first lie you ever told?” “Easy,” James replied laughing. “I met Sirius at a playground when I was seven and we were friends for about a year when he finally opened up about his home life and how he didn’t really like his family because they were all a bunch of dark wizards so one day he was at the playground and he was crying because of something his mum had done and he said he didn’t wanna go home, so I told him he could come live with me forever and I hid him in my closet for a good part of the day before my parents found out and made him go home.”

“Wow,” Lily replied “I never thought Sirius would have it so bad at home…so you lied and told him he could live with you forever and then he couldn’t? Poor kid, he must have been heartbroken.” 

James smiled at Lily’s kindness before responding. “Yeah he was…but I guess technically it wasn’t a lie…” James trailed off. 

“How’s that?”

“Well, because ever since Sirius walked out on his family last year and they disowned him, he’s been living with me and my mum and dad. They’ve always seen Sirius as more of an adoptive son than my friend anyway so it all worked out well I guess.”

“You mean Sirius is really living with you now?”

“Yup.”

“Then how come I haven’t seen him?” Lily asked.

“Well, he’s staying at his cousin Andromeda’s for the summer, Sirius hasn’t seen her since the whole thing with his family and he really wants to meet her seven year old daughter Nymphadora. Andromeda’s one of the only people in his family who didn’t completely shut him out but that’s mainly because they’ve been outcast as well.” James explained. 

“How many Blacks have been outcast from the family then?” Lily asked. 

“Not too many of the pure Blacks anyway, the ones that I know of because Sirius still talks to them are Andromeda, his Uncle Alphard, and another one of Sirius’ favorite cousins Alexandria, but she lives in the states so Sirius rarely ever gets to see her.” James explained. “Alright, now it’s your turn.” 

“I think I must have been five, I told my best friend at the time that I would take her to Disneyland— this big muggle park with all types of rides and themes— with me,” Lily replied laughing. “I really shouldn’t laugh, but I made her pack and everything but of course my parents said she couldn’t go.” 

James laughed along with her before responding. “Alright, so we were both terrible little children who broke the hearts of other little children by promising them something near impossible—“ 

“Nothing’s impossible, James, just _improbable._ ” Lily replied automatically succeeding in cutting him off. 

“Where did that come from?” James asked. 

“Sorry, it’s just something my grandpa used to tell all the time when I was little and it just sorta stuck with me.” Lily replied waving it off. “But now we’re getting off track and I believe it’s your turn to ask a question.”

“What’s your favorite color?” James blurted out not even thinking.

“James!” Lily replied.

“I’m flattered Lily, but I’m not exactly a color.” James replied jokingly.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Lily replied slapping him playfully on the shoulder. 

“Do you always have to say the first thing that comes to mind? Can’t you think of a better question than ‘what’s your favorite color?’ I mean honestly, it’s like me asking you what color the sky is—“

“ Cerulean blue with two drops of sunset orange mixed in.” James replied automatically. Lily looked at him mouth open.

“What? Can’t a guy be poetic?” James asked. 

“I’ll give you that one…but can’t you come up with a better question to go along with that lame one?”

“Oh, fine!” James replied pretending to have it be a bother. “Ok, I got one— but you still have to tell me your favorite color!” Lily nodded in agreement. “Alright, if you could pick three people to have dinner with, dead, alive or fictional who would they be?”

“Now _that’s_ a better question! Let’s see…” Lily replied thinking. “Judy Garland because my favorite movie is _‘The Wizard of Oz’_ , Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, and someone from the future, just to see what its like, not necessarily to tell me what happens in my particular life.” Lily finished. “Oh, and my favorite color is lilac.” 

“Alright, I’d choose the captain from the Chudley Cannons Quiddich team, Albus Dumbledore because he is quite possibly the most brilliant man alive, and you.” “ _Me!_ You’d want to have dinner with all those amazing people and then me? That’s it, you James Harold Potter are officially off your rocker.” Lily exclaimed.

“And why is that?” 

“Because, no one in their right mind would ever have dinner with me instead of anyone they could pick out of the past present or future. That’s a waste of perfectly good table space!”

“Look, Lily you’re a person, and I happen to find you interesting, smart, funny, and believe me the list can go on and on and besides its my decision and if I want to ‘waste table space’ as you so eloquently put it on you then I will.” James replied. “And now, I believe it’s your turn again Lily.” Lily opened her mouth and closed it abruptly twice before letting the matter go and continuing on with her question. “When was your first kiss and who was it?” 

“Getting a bit personal aren’t we?” James repied smiling good naturedly. 

“I figured we were moving in that direction, yeah.”

“Alright, well to be technical about it, my first kiss was when I was four years old. I was on one of those tube-ie play structure thingies and this girl and I were playing, she was chasing me through the thing and then all of a sudden she rams into me and we go tumbling down a tunnel and then she just flat out kissed me out of the blue and everything and kept going like nothing had happened.” James said laughing. “I can’t believe I still remember that.”

“Aww! How cute! I wish my story was as cute as yours…I was probably around four or five too— my parents had me in preschool – anyway I was going to get a blanket out of my cubby for nap time when all of a sudden I feel someone tap me on my shoulder and when I turned around, it was this boy and before I knew it he had kissed me right on the mouth and all I remember was being so angry!” Lily replied laughing at her own memory. “And then he asks me if I’d marry him saying we can get married in the play section before nap time and that gets me even madder. Poor kid, I pushed him into the nearest bookshelf, but seriously, were does he get off doing a thing like that without asking if its ok first?” 

James couldn’t hold it in anymore and allowed the fit of laughter which had been boiling deep inside him to come out. 

“ _James_!” Lily wined as he laughed. “I’m not going to play this game with you anymore if you keep laughing at me.” 

“S-sorry Lily,” James replied through the last of his laughs, “It’s just— you’re so funny. I can’t believe you still take something like that so seriously…the kid was five he probably thought you were kinda cute for a girl, give him a break.” 

Lily opened her mouth to argue the point James was trying to make before James cut her off with his next question. Soon they were walking up the last road before they got to downtown which happened to be on a rather steep hill. James had learned a lot about Lily like that her sister and her didn’t really get along all that well, that she used to hate her green eyes, and that if she could ever take back one thing she ever did it would have been the decision to not go in and see her grandfather in the hospital before he died. Lily in turn learned lots of things about James that she didn’t know before. He truthfully admitted that he had not been too comfortable with his appearance until around third year despite his outward confidence, that he had a secret obsession with old American singers like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, his favorite colors were red and gold but that green was okay as well, and that he had once gotten locked into one of the frozen food freezers at a muggle supermarket by Sirius. Lily by this time was trying her hardest to control her breath from huffing and puffing, although Lily herself wasn’t out of shape, the hill was rather long and steep. She stole a side glance at James who seemed to be doing perfectly fine and internally cursed him for being more in shape than she was.

“My turn!” James replied after they had finished Lily’s question: _‘if you could have one thing in the world what would it be?’_

“Who was the first person you ever kissed?” 

“James, I think we already did this question--” Lily replied with a smile. “Actually I know we did because I was the one who asked it.” 

“No, you asked _when_ my first kiss was and _who_ had kissed me, that’s quite different. I’m not asking who the first guy to kiss _you_ was, I’m asking who was the first guy _you_ initiated a kiss with.” James explained. 

“Oh, I see…” Lily replied trailing off as she stopped at the top of the hill. She could see the heart of the town in which she lived at her feet, nestled between the hillsides all of which were sporadically covered by gigantic redwood trees. She thought about James’ question until the answer finally came to her. 

“You gonna answer the question anytime soon Lily or are you just gonna stand there all day?” James asked interrupting her thoughts. 

Lily realized she had finally gotten to the point in the game where she didn’t want to answer a question for fear of embarrassment. Lily looked desperately for away to get out of actually answering the question and she quickly found her opportunity. “Race you down to the bottom!” Lily replied quickly.

“Huh?” James asked confused. 

“Ready? GO!” Lily shouted not bothering to explain or repeat what she had said before hurdling herself down the steep street and breaking into a fast run. It took James all but two seconds to realize what Lily had said before he raced down after her a grin plastered on his face as he began to pick up speed and catch up to her. Lily looked back to look for James but found that she didn’t need to look that far because he was trailing at her heels. James flashed his infamous smirk of a smile at her. 

“Wanna call it a tie before I beat you Lily?” James asked shakily as his feet pounded the sidewalk faster and faster.

“You really think you’re gonna beat me Potter?” Lily replied through breaths as she gained speed. 

“I. Don’t. _Think_. I. Know…” James managed to get out still keeping up with Lily’s fast pace. Lily looked back once more at James before smirking at him.

“Guess again Potter!” And with that, Lily brought herself up to the maximum speed her legs would carry her getting an extra surge because she was going down hill. James tried to do the same but felt his body wobble on the brink of falling face first. It really was a rather steep hill and he could already feel his body getting way to fast for his control. He slowed down for fear of falling but still remained running at a fast pace and watched as Lily flew down the remainder of the hill utterly impressed at how graceful she looked. 

“ _YES!_ ” Lily whooped triumphantly raising both hands in the air. “I win!” Lily laughed still slightly out of breath as she let herself collapse on a small patch of grass at the foot of the street just as James crossed the imaginary finish line and collapsed next to her.

“Only cuz you cheated!” James accused catching his breath. 

“ _Puh_ -lease! I got a five second head start— _maybe!_ ” Lily countered. “Besides you were on my heels the whole time— your fault if you weren’t fast enough!” Lily replied smugly. 

“Well forgive me if I didn’t want to fall face first into the asphalt just to beat you…I would have scratched up my face and if I my memory serves me, I remember you telling me once that I’d better pray I stay as good looking as people think I am my whole life because that would be the only way I would ever amount to anything in this world.” 

“One of my better comebacks,” 

“Indeed, quite brilliant now that I think about it…didn’t seem as funny at the time when you said it to me though…” James trailed off.

 “I’ve said some pretty rotten things to you huh?” she said finally. 

“Yeah, you have, and I won’t lie and tell you that they didn’t hurt cause some of them did.” James replied as he lay down and looked up at the sky. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean most of the things I say to you—you just make me so angry sometimes.” Lily explained.

“Don’t worry about the past Lily, just worry about the future.” 

“Have you always been this wise and scholarly?” 

“Only when it comes to life itself…with you though? Most of the times I’ve got the brain capacity to rival that of a walnut’s and that’s saying something seeing as walnuts don’t exactly have brains.” 

Lily laughed and lay down next to him on the grass. “You’re getting better though.” “I could very well be…or it could just be that the infamous ‘Potter Charm’ is finally taking its affect on you.”

“Quit while you’re ahead buddy, you’re doing very well so far and I’d hate to have to go back to hexing you just because you couldn’t turn on the filter between your brain and your mouth.” James laughed and a comfortable silence covered the two. 

“Hey, you never answered my question…” James trailed off still looking at the sky. “That I didn’t.” Lily replied trying to buy herself more time. 

“Well, aren’t you going to answer it _now?”_ James asked looking over at her.

“Oh look, an airplane!” Lily replied pointing to the first thing she saw in the sky. “ _Lily_ ,” James said warily. 

“Hmm…” Lily sighed as she continued staring up at the sky.  
“You’re not gonna leave me alone until I answer are you?”

“Right-o.” _Oh to hell with what he’ll say!_ Lily finally said to herself. “Fine, the first guy that I ever voluntarily kissed was you.”

“What!” James replied completely shocked. “When did this happen? And more importantly where was _I_?”

“You mean you honestly don’t remember?” Lily asked.

“No, I don’t. Refresh my memory.” James replied straightening up and looking at Lily with his full attention. Lily kept her eyes up at the sky as she retold the story…

 

Lily was nervous, and that was an understatement, but you would be too if you were starting a new school. She thought back on the events of the week and couldn’t decide what had been more surprising, the fact that exactly one week ago an owl had swooped into her kitchen window and delivered a letter to her, or the fact that she had just learned that there was a magical community living in secret along with the world she had come to view as ‘normal.’ The letter she had received from that owl was the reason she was now standing at King’s Cross pushing a trolly with a filled trunk full of spell books and all sorts of other things one having lived in the muggle world would have come to associate with the word ‘make believe’ and a large cage which held a silvery colored owl.

“Why did I make my parents drop me off?” Lily muttered to herself regretting the decision she had made when she told her parents that she was a big girl and could find the platform on her own. Now she was standing here facing the barrier between platforms nine and ten re reading the note which had been attached to her ticket. 

‘ _The Hogwarts Express departs from platform 9 ¾ at exactly eleven o’clock from King’s cross station in London on Monday, September 1st. Please be on time as the train will leave without you if you are not on it at the specified time above. In order to get onto the platform, you must walk straight at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, we hope to see you at the beginning of term. Sincerely, Minerva McGonnagal Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School’_

Lily looked at the barrier warily thinking that there was no way she would be able to get through. The whole walking through the brick wall that was the barrier completely defied all the laws of Physics as she knew them; there was no way one solid object could pass through another and by the looks of it, that brick wall looked pretty solid. “Excuse me…I _said_ Excuse me!” 

Lily was awoken from her internal thoughts as she heard an outside voice. She snapped her head up and looked over to see who it had been. Not five feet away stood a boy with black hair that fell gracefully into his stormy grey eyes alight with a slight twinkle of something lily could not put her finger on. He was taller than Lily but not by much with a lean boy’s physique but was very hansom nonetheless. Lily noted that the boy’s eyes were on her and that she had been staring, thought the boy, whoever he was didn’t seem to mind the fact that she had been sizing him up. “Huh?" Lily replied confused finally managing to find her voice.

“Well, I was just wondering if you were gonna get onto the platform anytime soon or if you were just gonna stand there and look at the barrier all day.” He replied in a good natured tone of voice. 

“What are you talking about?” Lily asked. 

“You’re going to Hogwarts right?” the boy asked. 

“Well, yeah but how did you know?” The boy laughed lightly tossing his head back as he did, his hair as if on its own accord fixing itself perfectly back into place when he straightened himself again. 

“Well you’ve been standing there staring at the platform gate for about ten minutes already, but the dead giveaway was the owl you’ve got on top of you’re trunk with the Hogwarts crest engraved on the side.” 

“Oh, yeah, I guess that would do it then.” Lily replied slightly embarrassed at not realizing how blatantly obvious it was. 

“I’m Sirius by the way, Sirius Black.” The boy named Sirius replied holding his hand out for Lily to shake. Lily regarded the hand before finally taking it in her own and giving it a shake. 

“Lily Evans.”

“You’re muggle born right?” Sirius asked noting quickly that the name was definitely not that of a pureblood wizard. 

“Yes,” Lily replied briskly whilst letting go of his hand. “Does it make a difference?” “No, not to me anyway, though mind you it will to some. Most wizards are accepting of muggleborns nowadays,” Sirius explained. “After all, you were magical enough to get into Hogwarts so what does it matter if you’re pureblood or not right?” Lily nodded, satisfied with the answer before turning back to the barrier. Sirius watched the petite redhead as she did before speaking once more. 

“It’s a lot easier than it looks getting onto the platform,” Sirius commented. “you won’t crash into the barrier if that’s what your thinking.” 

“A-are you sure?” Lily replied. 

“Of course I am, I’ve been to drop off my cousin Andromeda loads of times. Just take it at a bit of a run if you’re nervous, I’ll even go before you if you want just so you can see.” Sirius replied. 

Lily contemplated this for a moment before speaking once more. “Alright.” 

“Great!” Sirius replied. “Well, it was nice to meet you Lily, see you around Hogwarts I guess!” Sirius replied. 

Lily watched as Sirius ran at the barrier, pushing his trolley in front of him, and just when it seemed he would most definitely crash, the boy disappeared. Lily watched with wide eyes realizing that he hadn’t disappeared but gone _through_ the wall. _Well if he can do it…_ Lily thought to herself. She mustered up all of the courage she had and then making sure that no one was watching ran at the barrier. She was picking up speed and there was no turning back now. There was no way Lily could stop the trolley even if she had wanted to. The barrier was getting closer and closer—she was going to crash any minute. Lily shut her eyes tightly preparing herself for the inevitably painful contact with the brick wall, but it never came. Instead she heard a loud whistle emit from right in front of her, and when she opened her eyes she saw a gleaming scarlet steam engine with the words ‘Hogwarts Express’ encrusted in gold on the side and just to her left was a beautifully crafted rod iron sign that read ‘Platform 9 ¾’. Lily looked around and watched the sea of students standing around with their family or their friends. She spotted Sirius, the boy she had just met talking with another boy off to the side a few feet away from where she was standing. The boy he was standing with looked to be around the same height as Sirius and also had jet black hair which instead of falling gracefully as Sirius’ did was stuck up in all directions especially around the back. He wore round black rimmed glasses which framed his eyes but unlike most, his glasses didn’t hide his eyes, they instead enhanced them all the more. Lily, even as far away as she was could make out their rich hazel color. All in all, Lily decided that this boy, whoever he was, was quite cute, much more than she had found Sirius to be, but she’d never truly admit to that. Suddenly the boy with the glasses turned and looked in her direction, their eyes met for a nanosecond before Lily abruptly looked away and pretended to tie her shoes, feeling the heat in her cheeks rising a bit. She chanced a quick glance through her hair which was partially covering her eyes and realized that someone was walking over toward her, looking up fully from her crouched position she realized with relief that it was only Sirius. She stood up fully as he spoke.

“Hey Lily! I see you made it to the platform.” Sirius replied brightly. 

“Oh yeah, thanks for helping me with that.” Lily replied through a smile.

“Oh, no problem really Lily, If there’s anything else you’d like to know about Hogwarts by the way, I’d be happy to help you out.” Sirius replied smiling. 

“Well, I heard in Diagon Alley that everyone has to be sorted into houses, do you know how they choose Sirius?” Lily asked.

“Oh, right, the houses. Well, my cousin told me that it’s some kind of test that they make you do.” Sirius commented, a twinkle lighting up in his eyes. 

“A test?” Lily asked now even more nervous. “You mean we actually have to do magic?”

“Yup.” 

“But I don’t know any magic, no one else could possibly know any right? What if they put me in a really horrid house? Now what am I going to do?” 

“Of course they expect you to do magic.” Sirius said. “The sorting test of magic is an ancient tradition started by the founding members of Hogwarts. Back then all of the students were pureblooded wizards so they knew some magic before they came to school. But since it was such an old tradition even after they started letting in muggles, the school keeps doing it.” 

Lily gave him a horrific look and immediately began to panic. “Oh no! But I don’t know any spells yet! Sirius what am I going to do? You have to teach me some spells quick before we get there, please? I don’t want to get put in a bad house, or worse! What if they send me home!” Lily replied in hysterics. 

“Hey, hey! Just calm down there for a second, alright?” Sirius replied, clearly not knowing how to handle a hysterical girl.

“Y-you mean you’re going to teach me?”

“No, I can’t. I don’t know nearly enough,” 

“But, there has to be another way right? I mean you must know another way to help me out with this sorting test thingy.”

“ _Well,”_ Sirius began, the same light in his eyes growing all the more brighter.  
“there is another way, mind you it _is_ quite drastic…but what am I saying, you wouldn’t possibly be interested…” he trailed off. 

“What? What is it? Oh please tell me Sirius, anything would be better than going up there and making a fool of myself in front of the whole school!” 

“Well, alright.” Sirius replied slowly. Lily squealed. 

“Oh thank you Sirius, you don’t know how much this means to me!” 

“Well, don’t get too excited yet Lily, I haven’t even told you what you have to do.” Sirius replied. “Ok, now this is an ancient bit of practiced magic that I once heard my great aunt Meredith telling someone. Supposedly, there is a way to enhance a muggle born who is a witch or wizard’s magical powers. It is said that if they come in intimate contact with a wizard of pureblood decent, their magic will strengthen slightly because this will be the first direct contact they have with the magical world.” Lily thought for a second.

“Intimate contact?” she replied. “Like, a hug or something? So if I hug you I may stand a chance?” 

“Not exactly.” Sirius replied nonchalantly “Intimate contact, as my aunt explained to a muggle woman who’s daughter was coming to Hogwarts is in fact kissing said pureblood wizard. Secondly, I wish I could help you out Lily but I’m not nearly pure enough, I have something like ¼ muggle blood in me and you need a true pureblooded wizard for this to even remotely work.” Sirius regarded Lily’s expression and then added. “See, I told you, you probably wouldn’t be interested…” he trailed off. 

“W-well,” Lily began nervously. “Lets just say that I actually did take your advice, how am I gonna find someone to… _you know_ …” Lily replied softly.

“Oh that’s what you’re worried about?” Sirius replied “I thought it would be something bigger.”

“So you already know someone pure enough that I could k-ki--” Lily stumbled as she tried to get the word out of her mouth.

“Sure I do.” Sirius replied. “See that boy over there? The one with the glasses and the really messy hair?” he said pointing. Lily however didn’t need reminding, it had been the same boy she had been regarding earlier, the one with the hazel eyes. _Oh great! Out of all the guys on the bloody platform, Sirius has to pick the one I sorta kinda not really thought was cute for me to kiss!_ She thought to herself.  
“You mean I’ve got to kiss him!” Lily replied realizing a few moments after that she had said that last comment out loud.

“Oh come on Lily! I don’t particularly swing that way because I’m obviously a bloke and all but he’s not _that_ bad is he?” Sirius asked. Lily thought to herself for a moment about what Sirius had said, thinking to herself that it could be worse and completely missing the wink Sirius threw at the messy haired boy and the look of suspicion the boy shot back. 

“N-no, I guess it could be worse…” Lily trailed off. “but Sirius are you sure this is the only way? Are you sure this’ll work?” 

“Of course I am!” Sirius exclaimed. “Have I ever steered you wrong yet Lily?” 

“No, I guess not.” Lily answered thinking back to how he had helped her get onto the platform. “O-ok, fine. If you think it’ll work then I believe you Sirius.” 

“Great! So all you have to do is go up to him and say ‘Magic Awaken!’ and then you just… _you know…_ ” Sirius replied omitting the words ‘kiss him’ as Lily had before. “A quick peck on the lips would do—at least that’s what I heard my great aunt Meredith tell that muggle lady.” 

Lily nodded mutely before mustering the courage to do what she was about to. It would be worth it if they didn’t send her home or put her in a bad house right? Suddenly she felt her feet carrying her step by step toward the boy until she was standing right in front of him. The boy grinned at her as she came up and a slight blush grazed his cheeks.

“Hi I’m J--” the boy began. 

“I know.” Lily replied cutting him off. 

“You mean Sirius told you?” The boy asked. Lily nodded assuming he was talking about the ancient ritual thing Sirius had told her about and not knowing the boy was about to introduce himself. 

“Yes.” Lily replied. “Does it bother you?”

“No, I guess not, I mean it’s all the same right?” the boy replied. Lily thought this odd. _Maybe they’re just used to muggles coming up to them and doing that so they can pass the sorting test._ Lily thought to herself. 

“So, are you going to te--” 

“Yeah. I guess I’d better do it now huh?” Lily replied assuming again he was referring to Sirius’ advice and again not realizing that he was actually going to ask her what her name was. Without waiting for the boy to say anything else, Lily did exactly what Sirius had told her to do. 

“Magic awaken.” Lily replied. And with that, she took one step closer to the boy and planted a soft sweet kiss right on his lips.

 

James’ face was contorted in concentration as he put his fist in his mouth. His shoulders quivered slightly as he willed himself not to laugh though his efforts quickly went down the drain as Lily gave him a semi-deathly glare. “My face must have been priceless!” James replied through a laugh trying to lighten the mood. “Your face? _Your face!_ You just made me re-live what was quite possibly the most embarrassing experience of my life and all you can talk about was how priceless your face was?” Lily retorted. James could tell however by the tone of her voice and her facial features that she wasn’t as annoyed as she was putting herself out to be. His laughs diminished slowly and soon he was left with a slight grin on his face before he spoke once more. 

“Just trying to lighten the mood, but now that you reminded me of that particular incident I can truthfully say that I don’t think my face has turned so many shades of red so quickly before in my life.” The slight smile which had been playing on his lips left and he became serious once more. 

“If I remember correctly, that was the same moment you started to completely loath me.” 

“James, loath is such a strong word… _hate maybe_ but I was eleven what did you expect?” 

“But still! You didn’t even let me explain, you just assumed I had conspired with Sirius to publicly humiliate you!” 

“Well, didn’t you?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know anyway? I all I knew was that one minute I was kissing you because I though It would help me pass some stupid test—which by the way didn’t even exist!—and the next, you’re looking at me all funny before saying ‘eew! What did you do that for?—“

“ Come on Lily, I was barely eleven, I wasn’t about to admit I fancied you. And besides, shouldn’t that have been your clue that I didn’t have anything to do with it?”

“Didn’t help your case much when Sirius came over and clapped you on the back in congratulations!” 

“Sirius is a pathological liar, Lily even you should know that by now.” 

“Well _yeah_ now I do…but how was I supposed to know what that funny gleam in his eye meant when I had just met him?” 

Suddenly James laughed. “He got the twinkle in his eye eh?”

“James Potter! Do not turn this into something funny! I am _trying_ to argue with you!” Lily replied willing herself to stay angry. There was just something about James however that wouldn’t let her, weather it was the way he laughed so that it reached all the way up to his eyes or his knee weakening lopsided grin Lily did not know, all she knew was that it was contagious and for the first time in her life, she felt herself let go of the grudge she was trying to hold and joined him in laughing.

“Now there’s the Lily Evans smile I know and love…” James replied. “Alright, so we were both guilty for the horrible relationship we’ve had in the past six or so years?” James added as a compromise. 

“Ok, forgiven and forgotten…actually I take that back, I don’t even think a memory charm will make me forget that.” James’ face took on a pensive look as he picked at a blade of grass close to his knee.

“What are you thinking about now?” Lily asked.

“Just that it’s kind of awful really…that we spent all those years at each other’s throats all over some silly misunderstanding…Now that-now that we know why, don’t you feel like you wish we could have taken it back? That we could have gotten over that stupid incident and been friends for six years instead of, well, not exactly being on friendly terms?” 

Lily took a breath before answering his question. “Honestly James? Well, no.” 

“But wh—“ James began before Lily held up her hand and cut him off. 

“Let me finish first alright?... the reason is simply because if we’d become friends early on can you _honestly_ say that we would still be friends today? I’d bet every single pound I own that at some point or another we would have gotten tired of each other, had a massive fight and then proceeded to hate each other even more.” Lily replied. “Besides,” she added thoughtfully, “If we had already been friends then we wouldn’t be able to build the frein-“ Lily stopped herself, they weren’t exactly friends yet… “-to work toward building a friendship like we are now.”

“You my dear have a very dizzying intellect that I’m not even going to try and keep up with—“ James replied.  
Lily opened her mouth to protest but James stopped her. 

“-- however! Before you say anything about me not listening to a word you just said, I’ll have you know that I was indeed listening, and out of all the words that came out of your mouth, the most important ones were ‘building’ and ‘friendship’ so as long as we’re going toward that now, we don’t have to worry about anything else you just said.” 

Lily opened her mouth then closed it again a couple of times before finally sighing in defeat and saying the only thing that came to her mind at the time. “I-I really am sorry you know…for blaming you.” She replied quietly while inspecting a ladybug which was currently crawling on a dandelion by her shoe. James lifted Lily’s face before replying. 

“Me too.” A smile played on her lips as she let herself drown for a moment in the hazel pools that were James’ eyes deciding that he really wasn’t all that bad as she had thought.

“Come on, lets go! We have a whole town to explore and we’re wasting time sitting here at the edge of it!” Lily replied shooting up and dragging James along with her. All too soon for James’ liking, Lily had let go of his hand, and he found himself in the center of a quaint and cute looking town which looked as if it had been taken straight out of a movie. After Lily had shown James some of the more popular shops such as the record store and the popular bookstore right in the heart of the town which sat atop the old train depot, she led him over to the ice cream parlor where they ordered a humongous banana split sundae to share. 

“Favorite book?” Lily asked scooping a cherry off of a mound of whipped cream and popping it in her mouth as they continued their game from earlier. “ Um… _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_.” James replied. 

“Wait, That’s a muggle book!” Lily replied shocked.

“Lily, I may be a wizard but that doesn’t mean I don’t go outside the box once in a while…” 

“But, how did you pick up a book like that?”

“Truthfully? You left your copy one day in the common room so I picked it up and thought that maybe if I read it I’d have something to talk about with you…you know, if I ever managed to say more than three sentences before you hexed me.” Lily smiled slightly. 

“And here I thought you never made an effort to get to know me before you started asking me out.” 

James shrugged. “It was the least I could do, you didn’t particularly strike me as the type of girl who would respond to an invitation to the nearest broom closet right off the bat.” 

“Quite right, and don’t you forget it!” Lily replied through a giggle. “Hmm…I’d have to say my favorite book is probably _Alice in Wonderland_.” 

“You mean the one written by that wonky muggle who was clearly on crack when he wrote it?” 

“Well, that wonky muggle as you so called him happens to be one of the most respected writers who more commonly goes by the name of Louis Caroll.” Lily replied sniffing. “And he was not on crack!” she added as an undertone. 

“Was!” James said through a cough. Lily smiled slightly and crumpled a spare napkin in her hand before chucking it at James’ cheek. James tossed it back and Lily blocked it letting out a triumphant ‘ _Ha!’_ before taking another bite of ice cream. “Favorite ice cream flavor?” James asked.

“Mmm! Strawberry!” Lily replied without hesitation, taking a generous spoonful of strawberry ice cream from the bowl in the middle of the table and eating it, a smile playing on her lips. “And I’m practically positive yours is chocolate.” 

“How’d you know that?” James asked bemused. Lily leaned over until she was but inches from his face. 

“Because, you’ve got chocolate all over your chin silly!” Lily replied through a laugh as she wiped it off with her thumb. 

“Well, that’s embarrassing.” James replied feeling his cheeks stain pink. Lily gasped. 

“What? Is _the_ James Potter _actually_ embarrassed? I think the world’s coming to an end!’ Lily replied jokingly.

“Ha bloody ha, Lily…” James trailed off. Lily laughed as she tossed a couple muggle coins on the table for the sundae before standing up. “Come on, there’s still a bit more to see!” she said, pulling James to his feet and leading him down the sidewalk. Lily dragged him into a trendy and unique looking store called ‘Famous For Our Look’. They entered the store and James was immediately taken aback as he watched a rather older looking man bouncing up and down on a contraption which James had never seen before which looked like it was a stick with some sort of spring attached to the bottom. If James had ever found Dumbledore to be weird, he was nothing compared to the man bouncing before him, who he soon found out was Larry, the queer man who owned the store and insisted upon personally meeting and getting to know anyone who entered his store and happened to live in the town. Lily, who had known Larry for quite some time already, went straight to the women’s clothes section of the store—she needed a birthday present for her cousin Maggie, the one she had told James about earlier, who’s birthday was in a week— while James preoccupied himself with Larry who was teaching him how to use the po-go stick he had been bouncing on when they had walked in. Lily finally decided on a simple mint green and blue vintage t-shirt that had an artsy silhouette of Big Ben and the British Flag imprinted on the front and brought it over to Larry at the till. “Hello Lily!” 

“Hey Larry.” Lily replied smiling brightly, their conversation was cut from shouts of glee coming from behind her. 

“WAHOO! Hey Lily you gotta try this thing! It’s great fun! YIPPEE!” James yelled gleefully as he bounced up and down on the po-go stick acting positively childish. Larry smiled down at Lily. 

“I suggest holding on to that one Lils…he’s definitely a keeper.” He replied with a wink.

“Oh, no Larry, he’s not my boyfriend.” Lily replied fast. 

“I didn’t say anything about that Lily, you assumed that on your own.”

“Larry! Since when did you become so cheeky?” Lily replied.

“Meh, it comes and it goes…” he trailed off. 

Lily rolled her eyes as he handed her the receipt and the shirt in a bag. “James! Time to go!” she called over to him. James, who was getting the hang of the po-go stick, bounced over until he was right next to her bouncing in place. 

“Aw man! Lily do we have to?” James asked. 

“’fraid so…but we’ll come back some other time.” Lily replied, feeling more like she was talking to a five year old rather than a practically adult wizard. 

“Alright.” James replied, hopping off the po-go stick and handing it to Larry. “It was really nice to meet you Larry, and thanks for teaching me how to use this thing.” James replied shaking the man’s hand.

“It was my pleasure James…” Larry replied through a laugh. “Why don’t you go ahead and keep that one.” 

“Oh no! I couldn’t possibly—“ James countered quickly holding the toy out to him. “Nonsense my boy! I’ve got many more where that came from and lots more toys than I have time to play with. Now you be sure to stop by anytime you like and I’ll let you test out some other ones.” Larry replied pushing the po-go stick firmly back into James’ grasp. 

“Thanks Larry.”

“Alright, you kids have fun now.” Larry said as he walked them out of the shop. 

“We will! Bye Larry!” Lily called out as her and James left the store.

“I like him.” James announced once they were a few feet away from the store. Lily smiled. “I thought you might…he’s kinda like you really.” Lily replied.

“Larry? Like me? How so?” James asked.

“You know, little kid at heart and all...it’s actually kind of nice, that you can still act like a kid sometimes.” Lily said. James smiled at the thought, making a mental note to make sure that he and Lily did some fun kid things before the summer was over before speaking once more.

“So, my lovely tour guide…where to now?” 

“How bout we just walk down the street until we find something interesting?” James nodded and they proceeded to do just that. This town was different from any other he had ever been in. The whole place seemed to reverberate with the feeling of relaxation. Everywhere he went, people smiled warmly and it seemed to him like no one was really in any sort of rush at all as they stopped and talked to people they knew. It was a refreshing change from the fast life of muggle London that he had occasionally had to visit with his parents and James decided that he was quite beginning to like it here. James and Lily rounded the corner of the street, at the end a rather large looking building painted in cream and wine red with hints of powder blue came into view. A large elongated sign read the words ‘The Sequoia’ written vertically in what were unmistakably neon lights.

“What’s that?” James asked curious. 

“It’s the old movie theater,” Lily replied as they came up to the front of it. 

“Lily? What’s a moo-vee?” James asked. 

“Obviously not paying attention in muggle studies were you James?”

“But how can I my dearest Lily when you’re beauty is such a distraction?” James replied sweetly. 

“You’re pushing it again James…” Lily replied with a smile. James just smiled at her reply.

“And what are you so happy about now?” Lily asked. 

“Just the fact that I think you’re starting to like me a little bit more.” 

“And what would ever bring you to that conclusion?” 

“Well, a few months ago, you would have gone straight ahead and cursed me into oblivion and not even bothered with the fair warning.” 

“Keep that smug attitude up and you _will_ get cursed into oblivion.” Lily replied. 

“Aw, come on Lils, don’t you like me even a smidge more than when we started out the day?”

“Don’t call me ‘Lils’ James.” 

“Alright, _Lily_ ,” James replied putting an emphasis on the name. “If how much you liked me was based on how many Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans were placed in an empty Bertie Bott’s Bean bag, and we’ve already added a couple of beans to that, would it be safe to say we’ve added a few more since then?” James asked hopefully. “No,” Lily replied knowing it wasn’t fully well true but liking the fact that she could keep him on his toes.

“Not even one more bean?” James replied.

“Well, maybe one of those soap flavored beans.” Lily replied finally. That was a lie as well, if they actually were measuring how much Lily had begun to like James as a person with how full her bag of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans was, he would have already succeeded in filling more than half the bag if not more. 

“Soap? Why’d you pick soap? Eurgh! Those are disgusting. Couldn’t you have picked some other flavor like a nice toffee?”

“Because, soap may taste horrible but depending on the bar, it can smell rather nice so the smell balances the icky-ness out.”

“This may be by far the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had…I’m being compared to a bar of soap for Merlin’s sake.” James replied shaking his head disbelievingly from side to side.

“Hey you started it.” Lily countered smiling. 

“All I asked you was what a moov-ee was.” James replied innocently, succeeding in looking adorably confused. Lily laughed. 

“A movie, is kinda like a whole bunch of wizarding photographs played together only with music and dialogue and much, much bigger. It’s like a story told by moving pictures.” Lily replied trying to explain it as simply as possible.

“Can we go see one?” James asked.

“Oh look! They’re playing _The Wizard of Oz_!” Lily squealed excitedly as she noticed the movie poster on display in the glass case just by the theater entrance, completely missing James’ question. Realizing that James had said something, she spoke to him once more. “Sorry, James, it’s just _The Wizard of Oz_ is one of my favorite movies…” Lily trailed off. “What was it you were saying?”

“Can we go see a movie?” James asked again. 

“Sure…I guess that’d be okay.” Lily replied.

“Great! Let’s go!” James replied.

“Hold your hippogriffs there James.” Lily replied pulling James back by his arm as he walked toward the ticket counter.

“What?” 

“We can’t go see one now.” Lily replied with a smile.

“Why not?” he asked.

“Because, it’s almost seven and by the time we walk back home it’ll be closer to eight.” Lily replied. 

“Oh.” James replied, a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

“But we could go tomorrow.” Lily offered. 

“Really?” James replied slightly surprised. “You mean you’d come and watch a movie with me—tomorrow?” 

“Sure,” Lily replied with a smile. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to.” James flashed a lopsided smile at her before responding.

“Alright, tomorrow then…should we start heading back?” 

“Yeah, that’d probably be a good idea.” Lily said airily leading the way back home. Lily and James walked in silence for a while before James spoke once more.

“This isn’t the way we came down here.” He replied

“I know,” Lily replied. 

“But if we go this way, we won’t have to go up that steep street we took to get here…this road isn’t as steep as the other one is.”

“You mean that murderous hill could have been avoided the whole time?” James replied. 

“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t have been able to watch you suffer and where would the fun have been in that?’ Lily asked innocently before taking off and running down the street, leaving James to figure out what she had said. It took all but three seconds for James to realize what Lily had said before he bolted after her shouting a mock-resentful _‘Hey!’_ James caught up with Lily who had abruptly stopped about an eighth of a mile away. He touched her shoulder gently and opened his mouth to speak, but she didn’t even glance at him. Instead she held up one hand and simply said. 

“Shh! Look.” She said in all but a whisper.  
James turned in the direction she was looking and realized at once why Lily had stopped at this particular spot because what he saw before him was quite literally breathtaking. The sunset was beginning and the sky above was changing from a piercing blue into warm shades of oranges, pinks, yellows, and even purples. Every single ray of light the sun gave off seemed to be gobbled up by the vast body of water under it, causing similar colors to tinge the ocean below and reflect back up to the sky. A light and cool breeze was blowing, causing small waves to splash rhythmically on the shores of the taupe colored sand, the sound calming and soothing everything around it. And all of this was at his feet, as James stood awestruck standing on the edge of a small cliff next to Lily. He looked at the girl standing next to him whose beauty inside and out was equally as breathtaking as what lay before him and realized at that moment that he was truly in love with her, that he always wanted to be there for her and protect her, and he promised himself right at that very moment that he always would no matter what. 

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Lily asked finally breaking the silence.

“I-I didn’t know we were close to an ocean.” James replied, kicking himself mentally for not thinking of something better to say.

“Actually, it’s part of the English Channel,” Lily replied. “But the English Channel eventually either spills into the Norwegian Sea or the Atlantic Ocean, so I guess you’re not too far off.”

“It’s beautiful.” James replied. Wanting to add ‘ _Just like you.’_ but knowing that Lily would take it for some sort of cheap line if he did. 

“Come on, we’d better get going…” Lily trailed off, rubbing her bare arms to rid herself of the goose-bumps the cool breeze had produced as she lead the way down the street. James followed her, taking off the light flannel button up shirt he had been wearing over his white t-shirt as he went.

“Here.” James said, handing his shirt to Lily. 

“What?” Lily asked bemused, looking at the shirt James had in his outstretched hand. 

“Put it on, you’re cold.” James replied simply. “Oh! No, really it’s alright James, I’m fine.” Lily replied quickly, feeling slightly embarrassed at the fact that James was offering her his shirt in order to keep her warm. 

“I’m serious, Lily, please? I don’t want you to get sick.” James replied.

“No, then you’ll be cold,” Lily reasoned. 

“Who me? Nah,” James replied. “after six years of training for quidditch in rain, sleet, and snow this isn’t so bad.” James replied with a smile. “So now you have no excuse.” He added handing Lily his shirt. 

“I—“ Lily started, intent on refusing his offer once more, before deciding against it. “thanks, James.” She said finally with a smile as she slipped the slightly large flannel shirt on.

“Don’t worry about it.” James replied with a grin as he ran his hands up and down her arms to warm her up before they continued down the road back home.  
At times they walked in comfortable silence, wile at others they spoke to each other, carrying out interesting or strange conversations, but as they neared the street on which both of their houses sat side by side, both Lily and James slowed their pace, dragging out the time they were spending in each other’s company. All too soon, however they had reached their homes, and James was walking Lily up to her door to say goodnight. James turned toward Lily to find she was already facing him.

“I had fun today James.” Lily replied. What she said barely registered in his brain before he spoke.

“Lily, I just wanted to say thanks.” James said slightly embarrassed. 

“For what?” Lily asked a smile playing on her lips.

“For everything, you know, for a really fun day, for showing me around,” James paused before adding the most important thing and meeting her eyes. “For giving me a chance.”

Lily smiled as she took his hand and gave it a small squeeze. “You’re really not so bad you know, James.” Lily replied. She awkwardly let go of his hand as he smiled down at her. 

“Well, goodnight Lily.” James said finally. “See you tomorrow? We’re still on for that moving picture thing right?” 

“It’s called a movie James, and yes, we are…say around twelve?” Lily replied.

“I’ll come pick you up then.” James replied with one last smile before he turned away from her and descended the porch stairs and heading for his own house.  
Lily smiled slightly as she wrapped her arms around herself breathing in deeply and realizing that she was still wearing James’ shirt. 

“James, wait!” she called out. He turned around abruptly and walked back to the foot of her porch and looked at her expectantly. “Um…you forgot—well I mean, I still have your shirt, here.” Lily said making to take off the flannel shirt James had given her earlier. James placed a hand on her arm gently to stop her as he spoke. 

“Why don’t you hold on to that for a while, it looks better on you anyway.” James said giving her a smile that would have made any girl melt.

Lily nodded and he turned around to leave once more. 

“Oh, and James?” Lily began once more. “Yeah?” James asked turning to face her again. 

“You know, my Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean Bag, the one we were talking about earlier?” James nodded showing that he understood. “Well, just so you know, its more than half full…” Lily trailed off, pink slightly brushing over her cheeks. James grinned before bidding her one last goodnight and finally making it all the way back to his own house.

 

Once inside, Lily walked up the stairs and into her room. She took off her shoes and socks before falling tiredly on her bed, still wrapped up in James’ old flannel shirt. She breathed in deeply the smell of his scent on the article of clothing as she fell into a relaxed sleep with a smile on her face. 


	5. Let's Go to the Movies!

**A/N : **Six months?! I have quite possibly got to be the worst fan fiction author in the world and just for that, I won’t bore you anymore so we’ll just get straight to the story, be sure to read the full **AUTHOR’S NOTE** at the bottom! Hope you like the chapter! J

********

Chapter 5: Let’s Go to the Movies! 

****

The sun seeped through the peach colored curtains in Lily Evans’ room the next morning and danced gracefully across her closed eyelids until the redheaded girl finally awoke. Lily kept her eyes closed, smiling slightly for no apparent reason as she pulled the covers closer to her body, burying her nose into the long sleeve of the soft flannel shirt she had left on from the day before. As she breathed in, the distinct smell of James Potter filled her nose and Lily sighed. The smile that was currently on her lips involuntarily tugged and widened itself as memories of the day before flooded back to her. Realizing what she was doing, she shot up suddenly and shook her head, pressing the palms of her hands to her eyelids. 

“Urgh! I will not dote or fall for James Potter. I will not dote or fall for James Potter.” Lily repeated over and over as she gave orders to herself. “I will not,” she began as she opened her eyes and looked out the familiar window which, coincidentally looked into what was now James’ room. “Dote or fall for…” Lily’s rhythmic chant slowed down as she saw James race into his room. He picked up a book which was lying on his desk, tossed it into the air once and then caught it before sprinting back out and shutting his bedroom door behind him. Lily felt a familiar tugging feeling on her lips and before she knew it, she was smiling again. She sighed and buried her head in her hands before muttering, “Oh, sodding hell.” 

Admitting defeat, Lily hopped out of bed and grabbed a towel before walking to take a long shower. After, she returned to her room, careful to shut the curtains to her window before deciding on what to wear and changing for the day. Lily looked over her appearance in the mirror once more before deciding she looked alright and tucking the same thin wallet and cherry flavored chap-stick in her back pocket. Picking up her old white sneakers, she finally padded down the hall barefoot and made her way downstairs to the empty kitchen. Humming an old muggle song, Lily set the tea kettle on the stove top before going outside to fetch the daily newspaper from which she neatly extracted the ‘In Your Town’ section before setting the rest in front of her father’s usual spot at the table. Seating herself on the opposite end of the small round table, Lily poured herself a bowl of frosted flakes cereal and began reading. 

“Hello gorgeous.” said a deep voice from behind her which caused Lily to jump. “ _Dad_!” Lily shrieked, playfully slapping him on the arm as he walked over to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of orange juice. “Don‘t do that! You gave me a fright!” Jeff Evans smiled and let out a good natured laugh. “Sorry, love, I just couldn’t help it, you seemed so concentrated in reading that newspaper.” Lily rolled her eyes and took another bite of her breakfast. 

“I thought you were going to be in the office all day Daddy.” 

“I am. Just came back to pick these up.” Jeff replied holding up a few files in his right hand before setting them back on the table next to his glass. Lily nodded and returned to her breakfast. “But now that I’m here,” Jeff began. “How did your date go with James yesterday?”

 Lily forced herself not to choke on the cereal currently in her mouth as she swallowed. “It wasn’t a date dad.” She replied hurriedly. 

“Ok, fine.” he replied, smiling slightly. “How did your completely platonic encounter that lasted the whole day go with James yesterday?” 

Lily nodded, and opened her mouth to answer her father’s question but was interrupted as she heard someone bounding down the stairs. 

“Honey, I found this on the floor in your room,” Laurie Evans said holding up James’ flannel shirt. Lily felt the heat rising slightly to her cheeks and forced it back down. “I was going to ask you how your date with James went yesterday--” 

“It _wasn’t_ a date mum!” Lily cut in, finding her voice, which had momentarily escaped her. “--fine, your outing then.” Laurie replied, correcting herself as she smiled down at her daughter. 

“Yes, how did it go then Lily?” Her father asked again.

 “Um…good I guess…” Lily replied quietly, moving the dregs of cereal that were still left at the bottom of her bowl around. Laurie smiled at her husband and then looked back at Lily who was still not making eye contact. 

“I’m sure it went more than ‘good’ considering I found his shirt on your bedroom floor this morning Lily.“ Laurie replied cheekily. “So tell us, how good is good _exactly_ darling?” 

“Um…” Lily replied slightly embarrassed. If she couldn’t even figure out exactly what she felt about James Potter, how was she supposed to explain it to her parents? Thankfully at that moment the doorbell rang. Lily glanced up at the kitchen clock, knowing that it was James who must be at the door. “So good in fact that James and I are hanging out again today? Bye!” Lily replied quickly as she dashed out of the kitchen and toward the front door, leaving her parents to chuckle heartily at her reply.

 Lily opened the door hurriedly and shut it quickly behind her as she stepped out. She gave a loud ‘EEP!’ As she lost her balance, having unexpectedly collided with a solid object that she knew wasn‘t supposed to be there in the first place, and squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to land hard on the wooden patio. Instead however, she felt a pair of strong arms catch hold of her before she fell and when she opened her eyes once again, it was to see the face of James Potter grinning down at her as he held her steady, in a position that resembled that of a dip in ballroom dancing.

 “Hi.” James breathed lightly. 

“Hi yourself.” Lily murmured back smiling. 

“A-are you alright then?” 

“I will be as soon as you put me upright James.” Lily replied with a laugh. 

“Oh! Yeah, right, sorry.” James pulled her up to a standing position, smiling sheepishly as he did so. 

“Thanks,” Lily replied as she straightened out her outfit. “So, should we start walking?” 

“Uh, actually, my dad said he’d drive us into town today on his way into the city.” James replied motioning for Lily to follow him. “Come on, he’s right over here.” Lily followed James down the steps and immediately saw Mr. Potter seated behind the wheel of a car waving merrily at them. 

“Good morning Lily!” he called out.

 “Good morning Mr. Potter-- I mean David. How are you doing?” Lily replied as she slid into the car through the door James had opened for her.

 “Fit as a hippogriff my dear.” David replied at her and James (who by this time had gotten in as well and was seated next to Lily.) through the rear view mirror.

 “So, are you sure you know how to drive this thing dad?” James asked as he put on his seatbelt and tightened it so it fit snugly around his waist. At this comment, David Potter turned around to look at his son, giving him an over exaggerated shocked look that was so similar to the ones James had given Lily on past occasions when she was accusing him of something it was almost uncanny.

 “James!” David Potter gasped. “I’m hurt that you would question my knowledge on such a subject, of course I know how to drive a car-- now if I could just figure out how to move the little stick thingy here down to the ‘R’ we could be on our way.” 

Lily cringed, realizing that if Mr. Potter did what he had just said, he would succeed in reversing the automobile directly into the hedges. Mr. Potter caught her eye in mid thought and chortled. “Don’t worry Lily, I was only joking.” he replied with a wink as he put the car in ‘drive’ and took off. Lily heaved an internal sigh of relief, discovering first hand that David was actually a very good driver for someone who had apparently just learned. 

The three sat in silence as the compact car made its way toward the heart of town, Lily and James sneaking peaks at each other while they thought the other wasn’t looking. 

“So, what do you kids have planned for today?” David Potter asked, again looking at the two teenagers through the rearview mirror.

 “We’re going to see a moo-vee.” James replied matter-of-factly. Lily pretended to scratch the end of her nose as she hid the smile that crept on her lips at James’ pronunciation of the word ‘movie.’

 “Lily says that it’s like watching a bunch of wizarding pictures put together with music and other sounds, right Lily?” 

“Well, that sounds like it should be fun.” Mr. Potter replied as he turned into the heart of the town. He pulled up to a bus stop so that James and Lily could get off the car and with a last shout of “You kids behave yourselves!” and a parting wink out the window, James, and Lily, who was now blushing profusely, were on their own once more. James chuckled and Lily looked up into his smiling face. 

“What?” she asked in a slightly snappish tone. 

“You know, you’re cute when you’re embarrassed.” James replied.

 “I’m _not_ embarrassed.” Lily huffed.

 “Lils, you’re blushing.” 

“No, I’m not, and don’t call me Lils, James.”

 “Alright, _Lily_.” James replied, putting an emphasis on her name.

 “Then how would you describe the act of your face turning red if not with the word ‘blushing’ ?”

 “For the last time James, I’m not blushing, I’m simply-- simply glowing!” Lily replied lamely. 

“Well, then Lily, I must say,” James replied, lowering his head so that their noses were but centimeters apart. 

“If you _glow_ anymore, you’re likely to give a ripe tomato a run for it‘s money.” 

“One more comment like that Potter and you will _be_ a tomato.” Lily replied seriously as she pushed the sleeves of her three quarter shirt up past her elbows and advanced on him.

 “C-come on Lily, I was only joking, heh, you know that right?” James replied as he backed away slowly as he watched the familiar I’m-going-to-hex-you-badly look cross over Lily’s beautiful features. 

Lily continued her advance on James, she had him right where she wanted him as he continued to ramble about how she should contain her anger, just a few more steps back and… Suddenly, James felt his ankle hit a the back of the curb, and having been in mid-step, he tripped over his feet and landed on his back, his arms splayed out by his side. Squinting his eyes against the bright sun, he looked up to see that an expression of amusement to have replaced the one of anger and annoyance that had adorned Lily’s pretty features just seconds before. 

“Honestly, Potter,” Lily said through a giggle. “If we’re going to be friends, you’re going to have to learn how to take a joke once in a while and maybe realize when I’m not angry with you for teasing me?” 

“Come on, Lily, we’ve had this conversation before. How in the name of Merlin do you expect me to act toward your apparent anger after being on the receiving end of most of your better hexes for the past six or so years of my life?” 

“Oh, I knew you’d act that way,” Lily replied matter-of-factly, “I just like watching you get tongue tied.” James shot her a look of outrage. “Oh don’t be so touchy! Here, let me help you up.” Lily held out a had to him and James examined it, as if considering his options. 

“Or,” James reached for her outstretched hand slowly. “I could always help you down.” And with that, James pulled on Lily’s arm until she was on the grass beside him.

 “No one gets the better of James Potter, not even you Miss Lily Evans.” James tickled her, paying no attention to the fact that he was currently sitting atop her stomach as the ring or her laughter echoed through his ears.

 “Okay! Okay! I give up, s-stop n-now James!” Lily shrieked through her laughter. “Nope! First, you have to say James Potter is the most brilliant master mind to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts and I am more than lucky to be graced with his presence.” James stopped tickling her and leaned back so he was sitting on her stomach with his arms crossed, awaiting for her to repeat the phrase.

 “Little full of yourself there aren’t you?” Lily replied.

 “Well, I thought about making you say ‘James Potter is a sexy beast and I am restraining myself fully from dragging him into a dark alley and having my wicked way with him.’ but I didn’t think you’d take too kindly to that.” 

“Too right you are, but this is just plain silly.” Lily replied, gesturing to the phrase. She sighed and looked James straight in the eye before saying clearly: “James Potter is the most brilliant master mind to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts School and I am more than lucky to be graced with his presence. Now will you please get off my stomach? You really weigh more than you look and at the moment you’re cutting off my air supply.” 

“I dunno,” James shifted slightly incase he really was making it hard for her to breathe. “I kinda like it up here, very comfy.” Lily crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at the boy messy haired boy, letting out a huff or air as she did so.

 “Look! A brick wall!” 

“Huh?” James replied, turning to look in the direction that Lily had looked in during her sudden outburst. Seizing the opportunity, Lily flipped James over so their positions were changed. “Ha!” She cried triumphantly. “See? Not so fun being pinned to the floor is it?” 

“Putting aside the fact that I feel incredibly thick at the moment for falling for the ‘Look! A Brick Wall!’ distraction, I quite like this position-- much more so than our last one.” James smiled mischievously.

 “Y-you-- wait what?”

 “And for the record Lily, you can feel free to pin me anytime you’d like.” James added waggling his eyebrows suggestively. 

“Oh, you’re so incorrigible!” Lily slapped him on the chest before getting up and tucking a lose tendril of hair behind her ear.

 “I know I am,” James said standing and pushing his glasses up his nose slightly. He walked over to her and leaned his head toward hers so they were a few inches away. “But I have a feeling that you find my incorrigibleness endearing, nevertheless.” James flashed her an infamous lopsided grin before walking ahead in the direction of the theater. Behind him, still standing on the grass, Lily felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter but stubbornly immobilized them before quickening her pace to catch up with James.

 Not even five minutes later, Lily had taken the lead once more. “Come on! If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late for the matinee showing.”   


As they neared the front of the Sequoia Theater, James noticed a small booth that was painted in the same pale blues, creams, and pale wine reds as the theater itself. Across the top of the booth, in bold black letters the word ‘Tickets’ was painted, and just under that, a medium sized window situated with a slot underneath just large enough for you to stick part of your hand in. Behind the window, sitting at a small counter, James noticed a girl no older than twenty with curly brown hair looking quite bored as she leafed through a magazine and blew rather large bubbles with her pink colored bubblegum. 

“Hi.” Lily approached the window smiling kindly. The girl barely looked up from her magazine at Lily and popped yet another large bubble before replying in a slight drone. “Welcome to the Sequoia Theater, how can I help you today?” 

“Two for the twelve o’clock showing of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ please.” Lily replied.     The girl put her magazine down and pushed a few buttons on the till and then another which made two identical tickets pop out from a slot in the middle of the counter. “That‘ll be £ 3.75” James noticed Lily reaching into her pocket to pull out her wallet and stepped up to the till.

 “I’ll get it Lily.” 

“No, James, it’s fine, look I’m already getting the money out.” Lily replied. 

“But I want to pay for it.” James replied pulling out a crisp bill from his back pocket. “Come on, you two, I don’t have all day, one of you has to pay for it.” the girl behind the counter chimed in. 

“Just let me pay for the tickets, please James?” Lily replied. James looked at her hesitantly and she could tell that he wasn’t happy about letting her pay.

 “Look, I promise I’ll let you buy the snacks once we get inside, deal?” Lily did not wait for him to answer before she handed the money over and retrieved her change as well as the two tickets. She turned back to face James who was waiting for her at the entrance to the theater with a slight frown on his face. 

“Why the long face?” she asked as she handed him his ticket.

 “I don’t like having you pay.” James grumbled. 

“Oh come on James, it’s not that big of a deal. Look, I promise I’ll let you buy me whatever you want at the concession stand.” Lily saw James’ eyes dart up ahead. “Whatever I want?” he asked. 

“Yes, whatever you want.” Lily replied knowing she was going to regret having said that. 

“Great! Come on, let’s go!” James replied dragging her over to the stand where this time, a teenage boy was standing. 

“Hello there! What can I get you, mate?” the boy asked as he smiled friendlily at James. 

“We’ll have two butterbeers, a scoop of fizzing whizzes, two licorice wands, an acid pop, a packet of drooble’s, a stack of cauldron cakes, and about four pumpkin pasties-- no, wait! Better make that five pasties.” James ordered. 

The boy looked at James as if he had suffered some type of injury to the head. “Butter-who‘s? And Fizzing what’s-its? Are you feeling alright mate?”

 “You’ll have to excuse him, he’s foreign, they have different snacks where he comes from you see.”

 “Ah, an exchange student then?” the boy replied, a knowing look dawning on his face.

 “so where are you from then, mate?” he asked looking at James who opened his mouth to reply before Lily cut in.

 “He’s from Bora-bora!” 

“Right, well, just take a minute to look at what we have and let me know when you’re ready.” The boy replied, leaving James and Lily to go start up the popcorn machine once more. 

Five minutes later, James and Lily were both carrying two trays of snacks including everything from two large buttered popcorns and fizzy drinks to gummy bears and M&M’s. “I can’t believe you ordered and bought this much food, James.” Lily stated as she lead him to a mid theater row and made her way toward the center.

 “Well, you did say I could buy us anything I wanted.” 

“Yeah, but there’s no way we’re ever going to be able to eat all this and just because I said I liked chocolate malt balls and red vines licorice didn’t mean you had to buy both of them.” 

“Of course it did. You wouldn’t let me pay for the tickets so the least I could do was buy you the candies you like.” Lily could not think of a way to respond to that so instead she smiled slightly and looked around the theater. It was surprisingly empty, but they still had five minutes before the movie actually started. 

“So, what is all this stuff?” James asked finally as he looked down at what he had purchased.

 “Well, those are licorice whips-- they’re kind of like licorice wands I suppose.” Lily explained. “Then you’ve got your regular jelly beans-- no dodgy flavors like the Bertie Bott’s ones, gummy bears which are kind of fruity flavored I guesss, snacked sized mars bars, M&M‘s, and chocolate malt balls which are all basically some forms of chocolate. Um, peanuts, obviously,” Lily pointed out. “And then there’s the fizzy drinks which is basically what we drink in the muggle world instead of butterbeer, and of course what every movie wouldn’t be complete without, the buttered popcorn.” 

“Okay, I think I got all that.” James replied, looking at everything. He picked up the cup with the fizzy drink inside and examined it before finally taking a sip. “Is it supposed to be this…bubbly?” James asked choking slightly.

 “You mean carbonated? Yeah, that’s the general idea.” Lily smiled thwacking him on the back a couple of times so he wouldn‘t really choke. 

“Not as good as butterbeer of course, but it isn’t bad either.” James decided as he proceeded to try everything else he had bought.  
 After he had tried at least one of everything, James discovered that he preferred licorice wands to the red licorice whips but that jelly beans were much safer to digest than Bertie Bott’s beans. He had also developed quite a liking for popcorn.

 “Hey, slow down there tiger.” Lily teased as she watched James scarf down handfuls of popcorn. 

“Why?” James asked through his full mouth. “The guy at the concession stand said we get a free refill on each bag.”

 “Oh, running out of popcorn is most likely inevitable since you bought like four bags.” Lily laughed. “What I meant was slow down or you’ll choke.” 

“Aww, you do care, Lily.” James proclaimed. “And here I thought I was actually beginning to believe your constant hopes that I would choke on my morning cereal one day were real.” 

“Hey, I just don’t want you to be the reason why I’ll finally get the chance to put my Heimlich maneuver certification class to use.” 

James swallowed some more popcorn. “Heimlich maneuver?” 

“It’s this-- oh never mind.” Lily started. James nodded and took another sip of his drink. 

“So, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is what we’re watching? What’s it about?” 

“Yeah, it was my favourite movie when I was little, watched it so many times, I inadvertently memorized all the lines.” Lily replied vaguely and in no way answering James' question.

 “Well, if it was your favorite, then it must be good.” James said smiling as the lights began to dim and the scarlet curtain in front of them was drawn back to reveal a very large screen that began to light up.

 “Well, we’ll see what you say after the movie.” Lily answered smiling back before turning to look at the screen.

 James watched Lily’s profile out of the corner of his eye, illuminated by the brightness of the screen. For a moment, he was content to just watch her and completely ignore the movie that was about to start, but then, a large lion’s head appeared in the center of a hoop and emitted a loud roar. The starting credits began to roll and music began playing all around him as James looked up at the big screen completely in awe of what he was seeing and experiencing for the first time.

_“But it wasn’t a dream, it was a real live place! And I remember that some of it wasn’t very nice, but most of it was beautiful! And just the same, all I kept saying to everyone was ‘I wanna go home.’-- And they sent me home.”_

The character named Uncle Henry chuckled on the screen as Dorothy retold the tale of her journey to the Land of Oz. James’ eyes were glued to the screen, now only half munching on his popcorn. 

_“…Oh, but anyway, Toto, Toto, we’re home! Home…and this is my room, and you’re all here. And I’m not gonna leave here ever, ever again-- because I love you all, and…Oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!”_

The girl named Dorothy smiled widely as she clutched onto her dog and the scene faded into one of a cloudy sky as the ending musical score began to play and the words ‘The End’ appeared on the screen in bold white letters. Lily sighed smiling as the song ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ began to play and looked over at James who was still looking at the screen even as the curtains closed and the theater lights began to slowly turn on. 

“Come on, James.” Lily whispered touching his arm. “It’s over.” James shook his head slightly and looked over at her before getting up and following her out of the theater.

 “So, what’d you think?” Lily asked squinting up at a still glassy eyed James.

 “Do all movies have that much singing and dancing in them?” James asked finally. Lily laughed. “No, there are different types. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is called a musical.” “Oh, what other types are there?” 

“Well, there’s comedic movies, romance, science fiction, action, horror.” Lily listed off. 

“Wait, there are action movies? Those sound interesting.” James replied. 

“Typical.” Lily laughed rolling her eyes. James looked at her about to respond before she cut him off. 

“No! It’s not bad, it’s just that most guys do like those types of movies that’s all.” James nodded. 

“Well, I liked the one we just saw.” he mused. 

“Really?” Lily asked surprised. “Sure, I mean, it was brilliant the way they made it so all of a sudden everything was in color once she landed in Munchkin Land and I quite liked that scarecrow character, he was amusing, but those flying monkeys, now those were creepy. I wouldn’t fancy coming across a heard of those.” James replied. “No, that would be awful.” Lily agreed. “But I’m glad you liked it.”

 The movie had amused James, that had not been a lie, but he thought of telling Lily that truthfully, he would have liked the movie even if it had been a complete dudder simply because he had gone to see it with her, but thought it best not to. 

“Hey,” Lily suddenly said abruptly pulling out some coins from her pocket. “Do you have any spare change left? We could take the trolley home.”

 “Yeah, I think so.” James replied pulling out some coins from his pocket and holding them out to Lily. Lily showed him what each coin was worth and then picked out the correct amount for him. 

“Awesome, okay, lets go. The trolley’ll drop us off really close to the house.” She said leading him about a block back down the street and back to the old train depot. She stopped in front of a tall poll that was situated right next to a small wooden bench.

 “So, what exactly is a trolley?” James asked, knowing she couldn‘t possibly be talking about the trolleys they used at King‘s Cross to take their luggage to the Hogwarts Express. Lily turned around and smiled. 

“That’s a trolley.” She pointed to a large vehicle coming down the road that stopped right in front of James. 

“Well, sonny, are yeh gettin’ on er aint-cha?” a rather large man wearing a cap and a uniform that was pinstriped navy blue and white asked James from behind the wheel in a thick accent. 

“We’re, getting on.” Lily replied friendlily as she linked arms with James and lead him up the steps. 

Lily deposited the coins into a box like object next to the driver who in turn, gave her a slip of paper. James did the same and then turned to find Lily who had already found a seat half way down the bus.

 “Over here, James” Lily replied waving a hand. James began to walk toward her but not having expected the trolley to start moving, he teetered on the balls of his feet for a moment before finally getting used to the movement of the trolley and reaching the seat Lily had saved for him. 

“It’s kind of like the Knight Bus” James replied. “Only not as tall.”

 “Oh, I’ve never been on the Knight Bus, but Erica Engstrom, you know from Ravenclaw? She was telling me about it once in Potions.” 

James and Lily talked until the trolley finally rounded the corner and stopped across from their homes and Lily motioned for James to follow her out. 

“My mum made some fresh iced tea this morning, do you wanna come in and have a glass?” Lily asked as she crossed the street.

 “Sure, that sounds great--” James stalled, noticing that Lily had stopped walking and was standing at the edge of the sidewalk looking at her front porch.

 Standing there was a girl who was tall and thin with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping impatiently. She had a slightly abnormally large neck which all the more made her resemble a giraffe. Her bony face was framed by blond hair that was done up in large curls and her eyes were a pale blue. There was nothing extremely gorgeous about the girl’s appearance in James’ opinion but he thought that although she was what most would call a ‘Plain Jane,’ she’d look a lot nicer if she wasn’t wearing a scowl that looked as though it was a semi-permanent feature on her face. 

“Oh fucking hell.” Lily swore. “You have _got_ to be kidding me.”

 James raised an eyebrow at Lily’s use of words but she didn’t notice because she was still looking at the girl who was standing on her front porch.

 “Another former grammar school mate?” James questioned Lily. 

Lily looked at him as if surprised he was standing next to her. “Worse.” Lily replied through gritted teeth. “My sister. James, I’m sorry but I think you’d better go, I’ll see you later.” Lily said as she neared the end of the porch. 

“This is so typical of you, Lily Marie. Taking your sweet time getting home and not considering that other people have to wait for you to get back.” The blonde haired girl spoke as Lily neared. 

“Is that the way you welcome your only sister home?” Lily laughed cynically. “And here I thought you were beginning to miss me or something. Seriously though, hasn’t anyone ever told you that if you want someone to be home at a certain hour you’re supposed to tell them so, Petunia _Anne_?” Lily retorted, putting emphasis on her sister’s middle name. 

“Wait? Your sister?! But you don’t--- I mean, she doesn’t--” 

“James, I thought I told you go.” Lily replied. 

“But, Lily. I don’t understand.” James replied looking slightly put out.

 “You don’t have to just go! I mean it James.” Lily replied more forcefully.

 “And who’s he? Your--” 

“He’s none of your concern, so never you mind” Lily snapped. Petunia opened her mouth to retort back but Lily cut her off. 

“Well, come on Petty dear, I thought you implied I was late for something-- must not be that important if your wasting your time dawdling with your mouth hung open like that on the porch.” Lily said as she sprinted up the front steps and made to open the front door. “Well, come on missy, chop, chop before you make us even more late!” Lily added as she made to move inside the house. 

“Now wait one second you.” Petunia said in a deadly whisper that in no way intimidated Lily as she grabbed hold of her sister‘s arm roughly. “I’m warning you, there are some very important people in there and I don’t want any-- any funny business from you. I know you can’t help being a freak, but at least do everyone a favor and try to be as normal as you can for once in your life.” Petunia warned as she thrust Lily’s arm away and entered the house with her nose stuck high in the air. 

Lily huffed and balled her fists at her side, closing her eyes tightly to prevent herself from screaming in rage. The shutters on the window to her right rattled noisily as they sometimes did when there was a strong breeze in the air. But there was no breeze today and as Lily watched one of the screws that was holding the window screen in place, she willed herself to calm down. The last thing she needed was to have the Ministry send someone over from the accidental magic reversal squad because she couldn’t control her temper and therefore her unintentional wandless magic. And so, with one final deep breath, Lily entered her home to see who was over that had Petunia so worked up about them finding out that Lily did not attend a normal boarding school in the Scotland country side as her family had made everyone believe for the past six years.

**A/N:** So, anyone know who’s over the Evans’ house? Cookies to whoever guesses first. Well, I guess now would be a good time to say that I’m so, so, so sorry that I haven’t updated in 6 months-- almost sorry and ashamed enough to never show my face or my writing here again, but I can’t do that seeing as I know many of you are dying to see how this story ends. Anyway, although there’s no excuse for my not updating in forever and a day, I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who is still going to continue to read this story even after months of no updates. I know I tell you all this a lot but honestly, just knowing that you all read my story and review makes my days all the more better and motivates me to write like you wouldn’t believe even if it’s just for a few minutes out of my day. Anyway, thank you to everyone for reading and keeping with this story and hopefully I will never take six months to update ever again. I have chapter 6 planned out, by the way at least up to about half way so hopefully that will be out soon. Take care all and please, please all of you **REVIEW** if you want me to stay a happy writer.

 Oh and by the way, I have created a **live journal** account where I will be talking about my so-called life and more importantly to you all, how the story’s going so far so check it out, I absolutely love talking to new people so feel free to drop me a line or friend me there. My username is **luminous_star87**


	6. Here Comes the Bride and Late Night Meetings

  
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Chapter 6: Here Comes the Bride and Late Night Meetings

**: Here Comes the Bride and Late Night Meetings**

No A/N before the chapter this time, but please be sure to read the one at the bottom, dearies! J 

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Lily had never been the cause of an intervention before but she imagined that if she were ever subjected to one, it would look similarly to the scene that was before her as she entered the living room which immediately quieted when she stood, shadowing the doorway.

The group of people smiled at her though Lily could tell that the only sincere smiles in the room were from her parents who were situated on the two seat sofa. Across from them a ways, Petunia had frozen in the act of preparing and handing out tea to the four people who were smiling with a mixture of forcedness and nervousness. Her sister however, quickly gained her composure and commenced in the act of tea serving once more, the only traces on her face that even suggested she was nervous being the slight twitch on the left corner of her mouth. 

Lily recognized Vernon, Petunia’s lump of a boyfriend seated next to two people who Lily had never seen before but could only assume were his parents. Sandwiching Mr. and Mrs. Dursley from the other side was another rather large person. Lily remembered Petunia mentioning once during dinner that Vernon had a sister but she wasn’t exactly expecting her to resemble her brother quite as much as she did-- even down to the few whiskers protruding from her almost non-existent chin.

“Good, Lily, you’re home. We told your sister you’d be back soon.” her father stated.

“Dear, this is Mr. and Mrs. Dursley and their daughter Marge. I believe you already know Vernon.” her mother introduced.

“Oh, it’s very nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley.” Lily replied politely as she walked over and held her outstretched hand out to Mrs. Dursley who was closest to her, inviting her to shake it.

Mrs. Dursley, still holding her tea, looked at Lily’s outstretched hand snobbishly before sipping her tea in what she presumed was a delicate manner. “Charmed, I’m sure.”

Lily’s smile faltered slightly when she realized that Mrs. Dursley wasn’t going to shake her hand thinking that it was quite rude while she wondered just what Petunia had told them about her before they had come over.

“Well, now that _everyone’s_ \--” Petunia emphasized this by looking at Lily. “here, Vernon and I,” she pulled Vernon to her side “would like to make an announcement…We’re getting married!”

“Married? Oh, Petunia that’s wonderful!” Laurie Evans hugged her oldest daughter.

“Yes, very good, son.” Mr. Dursley clapped his son on the back while Mrs. Dursley wiped what Lily thought to be a crocodile tear from the corner of her eye as she chided about how her ‘ickle son was all grown up and getting married.’

“Congratulations.” Lily muttered forcing a slight smile. 

“Well, we’ll have to start planning, then.” Mrs. Dursley replied as she sipped her tea once more.

“Oh yes, of course!” Laurie gushed. “Especially if we’ll want to plan the wedding for next spring-- sometime in May. Yes, May would be a beautiful month for a wedding.”

“May? But, Vernon’s going off to university at the end of August.” Petunia replied.

“Well, that’s alright dear, we’ll have the wedding planned by the time he gets back, besides, I’m sure Vernon doesn’t want to go through the planning process-- that’s more of a woman thing, right Barbara?”

“Yes, of course.” Barbara Dursley replied.

“Oh, can’t we get married sooner? Please?” Petunia begged.

“When did you have in mind?” Laurie asked.

“The end of July?” Petunia replied meekly.

“July?! But that’s barely a bit over a month!” Laurie laughed. “Darling, there’s no way you can plan a whole wedding in that amount of time, it’s positively mad!”

“But mum!” Petunia whined. “If we don’t get married soon, then I won’t be able to go off with Vernon when he starts school and I just couldn’t bear to part with him for an entire school year!”

“Go with him? Now honey, I dunno if that’s such a good idea. Besides, Vernon needs to focus on his studies while he’s there-- especially during the first year, don’t you agree Barbara?”

Petunia’s face contorted into a look of dislike at her mother’s reply as she waited for Vernon’s mother to answer.

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea arrogantly once more and Lily resisted the urge to throw the tea in her face, saucer and all.

“What do you think about all this popkin?” She asked her son as she placed a hand on his rather large shoulder. Vernon fiddled with is shirt collar slightly before replying.

“Petunia and I have discussed it and we would like to be married before the end of the summer.”

“Of course you do!” Barbara Dursley chuckled as she pinched her son’s cheek. “Anything my little Vernie wants,” Lily suppressed the urge to gag. “Don’t worry darling, we’ll plan the wedding for the end of July just like you want and it’ll be the most extravagant wedding this town has ever seen!”

Laurie Evans sighed knowing there was no turning back now. “Well, I guess we’d better get started on setting a date and sending out those invitations if we’ve got a wedding to plan by the end of July.”

Petunia gave a squeal of joy and hugged her mother tightly.

Lily, seizing the opportunity while the rest of the occupants in the living room were distracted, slipped quietly out of the living room and into the closest room which happened to double as her father’s study and the library, making sure to shut the door behind her. 

Her father’s study had always been one of her favorite rooms in the house. Lily really didn’t know why. The room was simple with a desk near a small window and just about every inch of wall space taken up with books that her parents had collected over the years. The only thing that made the room even the tiniest bit elegant was the small fireplace that was embedded into one of the walls-- one of two in the Evans’ home-- which was at the moment crackling merrily as the bright flames lapped at the disfigured logs within-- hang on a minute. Lily turned back to the fireplace which was lit-- _lit._ In the middle of summer no doubt.

“That’s odd.” Lily spoke aloud pulling out her wand. “Now what’s the incantation to put it out again?”

Lily rested the tip of her wand on her chin, looking up in thought as she spoke the words out loud.

“It’s _nox inflamarea._ ” replied a voice within the room that startled Lily. “But I’d rather you didn’t extinguish the fire while I’m talking to you, Lily.”

Lily looked back at the fire in which now, the bobbing head of Remus Lupin sat amidst the flames looking highly amused.

“Remus!” Lily kneeled down beside the fire. “You gave me a fright, you prat!”

Remus chuckled. “Gee, it’s nice to see you too Lil.”  
“What are you doing in there you silly boy?”

“Well, I was a bit bored and since mum and dad said I couldn’t go out of the house, I figured paying you a little floo visit would be enough to entertain me.”

“But this is a muggle fireplace--”

“I know, I had one of my dad’s friends at the ministry connect your fireplace to the floo network, but just for today.”

“How’d you know I’d even be around to catch you in the fire? I mean if someone like Petunia’d found your head in there I think she’d have had kittens.”

“I’ve been popping in and out when I found time-- I just figured you’d be bound to come in here today if you had nothing to do seeing as how you’re always talking about your dad’s extensive book collection.”

Lily smiled. “All that trouble just to pay me a visit? Really, Remus, I’m touched, but wouldn’t it have been easier to talk to someone already connected to the floo network like Sirius or Peter? Why did you really want to talk to me?”

“Come on, Lils, you act as if we’re not friends--”

Lily raised one eyebrow and looked at him. True they were friends, but going through all this trouble in linking her house with the floo network? No, Remus was a marauder after all, and though he did not go prancing around the school causing mayhem 24/7 like Sirius and James did, his mind still worked in mischievous ways occasionally.

“Well,” Remus blushed slightly. “I have been meaning to say hi, Lily. But I just wanted to see if you were still alive or not.”

Lily looked puzzled. “And why’s that, Remus?”

“Well, I figured you’d have jumped off the nearest cliff the moment you found out James was going to be your new neighbor.” Remus chuckled.

“Remus!” Lily replied slightly outraged before joining him in chuckling.

“So, did James tell all three of you?”

“Nope, just me-- he said he was scared that if he told Sirius, he’d come straight over from Andromeda’s and start teasing him and Peter tells Sirius everything so,” Remus trailed off. “But anyway, how’s it been going with James anyway? You’re not going prematurely grey or anything are you?”

“Oh, ha-bloody-ha!” Lily replied sarcastically as she stretched out on her stomach and propped her head up with one arm. “Actually, James is, well, not what I expected him to be, truthfully…he’s more…” 

“Interesting? Fun? Friendly? Admirable? The best friend you never had? Fancy-able?” Remus supplied.

“Interesting? Yes, friendly? Definitely but who doesn’t know that about James, but as for fancy-able? No dice, I definitely don’t fancy James-- I never _will_ fancy James.” Lily chuckled, saying her final point in a way that sounded as if she were convincing herself that she didn’t fancy the boy next door.

Remus resisted the urge to tell her that she wasn’t fooling anyone but bit his tongue and allowed her to continue.

“I guess I just didn’t expect to get on so well with him. In the past two days we’ve hung out, it’s just surprised me how well he gets me…” Lily replied. “Sometimes we’ll talk and I feel as if we’ve been friends forever, but that’s crazy right? I mean we’ve only just started really getting to know each other, I mean has he always been so…” _Charming_ , would have been a good word, Lily decided, but instead she trailed her sentence off yet again, leaving Remus to fill in the blanks “I dunno, I don’t think I’m making any sense.”

Remus nodded. “ Yeah, he has. You’ve just always been, forgive me for saying this but, kind of blinded by your annoyance of him. Yeah he can be an arrogant arse sometimes, and I say that with the utmost respect as one of his best friends, but if you’d have looked passed that, you two probably could have been friends long before this summer kind of threw you two together.”

Lily nodded, pensively.

“Remus, I have no clue what I’m doing-- I don’t even know if I know how to be James’ friend.” Lily moaned slightly.

“Oh come on, you? Lily Evans, not knowing how to be someone’s friend? Lily, you’re one of the kindest girls I’ve ever met, I’m sure you’ll have no problem with it-- just keep doing what you’re doing. It seems to be going fine from where I’m standing.”

Lily looked warily at Remus’ advice as though still not sure she could build a solid friendship with James Potter.

“July 19th.” Remus replied.

“What?” Lily asked perplexed.

“James’ birthday, it’s on July 19th\-- it’s coming up you know, and I mean, what kind of friend would you be if you didn’t know his birthday?” Remus asked.

Lily smiled slightly. “Thanks Remus, I--”

There was a sudden rattle at the door as someone tried unsuccessfully to open it that cut Lily off in mid sentence.

She looked back into the fireplace and caught Remus’ surprised look at the sudden noise before his bobbing head disappeared quickly.

The door flew opened with a ‘pop’ and Jeff Evans walked in.

“I really do have to fix this door-- I swear the doorknob gets sticker every time!” Jeff Evans replied examining the doorknob in question.

“Dad!” Lily replied slightly shocked at his sudden appearance.

“Lily.” Jeff replied an amused smile playing on his lips. “Hiding from our new in-laws are you?” he joked.

Lily smiled. “Well, you know me.”

“Who were you talking to in here, I could have sworn I heard two voices when I was trying to get in--”

“Hi Mr. Evans, sorry, I just popped by to have a chat with Lily, I hope that’s okay.” Remus replied, his head reappearing in the fire.

Lily jumped slightly once more. “you really have to stop sneaking up on me like that-- I thought you’d left.” Lily replied.

“Remus? Is that really you in there?” Jeff asked, in awe. “But, how did you get in there?”

“Dad, Remus had our house connected to the floo network. See, lots of wizards use their fireplaces to communicate with each other because it’s faster and easier to have a conversation like this than to keep sending owls--” Lily explained.

“Lily, this is amazing, why didn’t you tell me about this before? The amount of money we could have saved throughout the years on phone bills…” Jeff trailed off in thought.

“Oh yeah, dad, that’d be just great, I can only imagine what a state poor great aunt Mildred would be in if she saw your head in the fireplace one day.” Lily replied sardonically.

“Alright Miss. Sarcasm-- forgive me for being such a-- what’s that word you all use to describe us?”

“Muggle.” Remus and Lily said in unison.

“Right, that. Well, I’ll let you and Remus finish up your visit,” 

“Actually, Mr. Evans, I have to get going-- mum wants me to go to the grocery store with her before she starts up dinner. Talk to you later, Lily?” Remus asked.

“Yeah, definitely, I’ll send you an owl with the er, _status_ of the relationship.” 

Remus smiled and with a faint ‘pop’ once again disappeared.

“So, mind if I hide out with you for a while, sport?”

“What, hiding from the in-laws already?” Lily echoed her father’s previous statement.

“Mr. Dursley’s digging me into an early grave with all his droning on that darn drill company of his.” Lily’s dad stated as he stat down in his desk chair.

“I’ll bet. They’re not a very conversational bunch are they?”

Lily watched her father nod in response to her question.

“Dad? Do you…Do you like that Petunia’s marrying him? I mean, don’t you think there might be someone better suited for her out there?” Lily asked.

“Lily, I---”

“NO! THERE IS NO WAY I AM LETTING THAT-- THAT--- _HER_ BE IN _MY_ WEDDING!” 

“Petunia Anne, there is no reason to refer to your sister like that!” 

Lily followed the voices of her mother and sister down to the kitchen.

“What’s going on, here?” Lily asked.

“YOU! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!” Petunia rounded on her.

“Me? What’d I do this time? And _please_ tell me that you’re not going to give me another cock and bull excuse like ‘It’s more of the fact that you _exist_ , really.’” Lily rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Y-you’re trying to sabotage my wedding! And the only way you can think to do it is by--by _weaseling_ your way into the second most important position in the wedding!”

“Okay, this has gone far enough.” Lily replied. “What exactly are you talking about?”

“I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU, WANTING TO BE THE MAID OF HONOR! YOU-YOU-YOU ABNORMAL PERSON!!!”

Lily squinted her eyes as Petunia’s shrilly voice filled the kitchen and couldn’t help but smirk at Petunia’s lack of a good insult to throw at her.

“Wait, what? Who said I ever _wanted_ to be your bridesmaid?”

“Oh don’t lie you pathetic cow! I know you put mum up to this but guess what? This is my wedding and I will not have you having any part in it!”

“Oh yeah? Well who said I even wanted to take part in your stupid we--”

“That is ENOUGH!” Laurie Evans exploded. “Now, I have had it with both of you! Lily, you are going to be Petunia’s Maid of Honor, and Petunia, Lily is going to be your Maid of Honor because if you don’t, then I’ll-- I’ll put your wedding off for another two years!.”

Petunia looked outraged and Lily shocked.

Mrs. Evans sighed. “You two are sisters and you always got along, until-- until recently. I’ve always dreamed of planning out your wedding-- both of your weddings and even though the gowns or decorations varied, what always stayed the same in my dreams was that your father would walk you both down the aisle and that both of you would be each other’s bridesmaids. So please, Petunia, I’m asking you as your mother to let your sister be your Maid of Honor and Lily, I’m asking you to take on that role in the wedding.”

Lily sighed. “Okay, mum. I’ll do it-- but only because you want me to.”

Petunia’s face contorted in anger. “I don’t know how yet. But somehow, I know that this is all your fault.” she said in a deathly whisper as she stalked out of the room.

“Well,” Laurie said, clasping both hands together. “I’d better get back to Barbara-- we’re calling her personal stationary consultant so we can get the invitations printed and mailed out by tomorrow. Oh and don’t make any plans for tomorrow, Lily.” Laurie replied as she began walking out of the kitchen. “We’re going dress shopping in London!”

Lily was left alone in the kitchen. It was 6:42pm and it was official. She was now the Maid of Honor at the Evans/Dursley wedding.

**********************

James Potter woke up at 10:58am the next morning. He squinted at the luminescent green numbers on his bedside alarm clock for a few moments, trying to make out the time without his glasses. It was useless, he figured after a few moments. He was blind without them. Slipping his glasses on, James finally realized how late it was and rolled out of bed, scrounging around his room to find some clean clothes. He had told himself he’d wake up early today and go speak with Lily first thing bright and early to figure out exactly what had gone on the day before when she had so abruptly told him to go home. 

Sliding down the banister, James ran a hand through his hair trying unsuccessfully to make it lie flat as he stepped out of the house and walked up to the Evans’ front door. He was a foot away before he shook his head rapidly and turned around, proceeding to walk right back down Lily’s front porch steps.

James walked to the middle of the street, starting to turn right and go back home before he stopped himself. 

“Oh come on, Potter-- you weren’t made a Gryffindor for nothing!” James spoke quietly to himself. “Stop being a pansy and just go up and knock on her door!” he walked back down the street and up to the Evans’ front door, this time making it close enough to pose as if about to knock, before he sighed and turned back around, heading in the exact same direction he had come.

Meanwhile, Jeff Evans watched with amusement from where he was crouched just under one of the windows of his house, trimming his wife’s begonia bushes. Jeff chuckled as James approached the front door to his house for the second time before chickening out yet again and walking away down the street.

James growled in frustration and ran a hand through his hair-- making it look even messier than usual before stalking up the Evans’ front steps, standing in front of the door.

“Come on, Potter, it’s just a door-- a door, and all you have to do is knock on it.” James muttered to himself as he stared at it.

“So are you going to stand there all day and stare at my door, James, or are you actually going to get up the courage to actually knock?” came a voice from James’ left.

“Although,” Jeff Evans added teasingly. “I imagine that just standing there instead of pacing back and forth from your house to ours requires a lot less energy.”

“Mr. Evans! I-I mean Jeff.” James flinched as Lily’s dad suddenly popped out from where he had been crouched next to a particularly large bush.

“Sorry if I startled you, I’ll uh, let you get back to your pacing if you want.” Jeff chuckled.

“No, you didn’t-- just caught me a little off guard,” James trailed off. “I’m just gonna, you know…” he gestured to the door and once again with the intention of knocking.

“She’s not home you know, Lily that is.” Jeff smiled, gesturing to the house.

“Oh.” James replied, trying not to sound disappointed as he thought about Lily having fun with some other guy around the town. “Do you know if she’ll be back early tonight?”

“Well, they went out early this morning to look at dresses so I imagine they’ll be back early in the evening.”

“Dresses?”

“Yeah. My oldest daughter, Petunia, well she’s getting married as of yesterday, only she wants to have the wedding by the first week of August and since we’re kind of pressed for time, the girls had to go get dresses picked out and fitted right away.”

“Wow.” James said bemused at the thought of having to plan a wedding in a little over a month. “Well, maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow and see if she’s free then…Bye, Jeff.” 

James made to walk back to his house, this time for good but Mr. Evans’ voice stopped him.

“James!” 

“Yeah?”

“Did you want to leave a message for Lily? I can give it to her when she gets home.” 

“That’s alright. Um…just-- just tell Lily that I stopped bye.” James smiled before he turned back around and walked back to his house.

“Oh, mum! I think this is the one-- it’s absolutely _perfect_!” Petunia squealed from within a fitting room.

“Well, come on out sweetie so we can all have a look.” Laurie called back.

Lily was seated a few feet away from her mom, Mrs. Dursley, and Marge, on a rather large, frilly stool, leafing through yet another bridal catalogue. They had been at it for hours-- wedding dress shopping that is, and Petunia still hadn’t found what she was referring to as ‘ _the perfect dress’_ yet.

“Oh mum, don’t you just _love_ it?” Petunia asked, emerging from the dressing room and flouncing over to the small stage platform next to the sitting area as she twirled around.

“I told you it was perfect, didn’t I? Isn’t just perfect?” Petunia gushed again.

Lily looked up from the magazine with a bored expression on her face, her emerald green eyes taking in the site that was her sister in one of the poofiest wedding dresses she’d ever seen.

“Yeah, if you want your head to be drowning in a dress that looks more like a cupcake made of petticoats and way too much tulle.” Lily muttered sardonically.

Petunia’s eyes snapped onto her sister and Lily cooly looked back at her.

“What was that you said, Lily dearest?” Petunia asked in an all too sweet voice Lily knew to be deathly.

She forced a smile. “That you’re right as always, big sister-- that dress is absolutely _perfect_ for you!” Lily replied, in a good impression of Petunia.

“Ah, my life is complete. I can now die happy knowing I have the always perfect Lily’s approval on my wedding gown.” Petunia replied sardonically.

“Oh, I’m sure you can.” Lily muttered rolling her eyes as she went back to flipping through the bridal catalogue now on her lap. “Oh, and Lily, I’ve picked out the most flattering bridesmaid dresses-- there’s a dressing room all set for you to try it on.” Petunia said, waving her hand toward the dressing rooms.

Lily smiled forcedly as she made her way past her sister and mother, who now, was examining Petunia’s dress from all angles.

“Right this way, Miss. Evans. You’re in dressing room number five.” A lady with blonde hair done up in a tight French-braid, wearing a tailored black woman’s suite said, leading Lily over to her dressing room.

Lily walked in, begrudgingly, and slipped on the dress, not even bothering to give it a good look before putting it on.

The dress fit like a glove, which she wasn’t expecting, but when Lily turned to face the small, lengthy mirror on the dressing room wall, she almost had a coronary attack. For this dress, although lovely in style wasn’t the most flattering on Lily’s figure but since she was naturally slim, it neither enhanced nor distorted her figure. It also happened to be made out of the most tacky, bright magenta material Lily had ever seen which, coincidentally, also happened to clash horridly with her red hair.

“No! Oh no, you have got to be kidding me-- there is no WAY I am wearing this!”

Lily’s voice carried out and over to Petunia and Laurie Evans who were still on the modeling platform. Petunia smirked triumphantly, and Laurie turned toward where Lily’s voice was coming from.

“Come on out honey, I want to see the dress on you.”

“No way, mum, there is no way I’m coming out wearing--”

But Lily did not get the chance to finish her statement, for the same blonde woman who had shown her to her dressing room, had now pulled back the curtain which substituted for a door, of her stall and had yanked her out, beginning to pin certain places in the dress where it would need alterations. 

Lily glared. “I swear on Merlin’s beard, there is no way in hell I’m wearing this dress-- it makes my hair look horrible and my skin look pale.”

“Come on, honey, it doesn’t look that bad.” her mom stated.

“Forgive me for being snippy, but are we _looking_ at the same dress, mum?”

“Well--”

“Well take the bridesmaid dresses, please!” Petunia ordered, looking at the woman who was helping them.

“Now, hold on a minute-- lets wait and see how it looks on my Margie-- darling, are you almost done?” Barbara Dursley replied.

“Yeah, mum but the dress is a tad too small, it won’t zip up all the way.” Marge replied from within the fitting room.

“Oh well that’s alright dear, just come on out so we can get the gist of it.”

Marge walked out of the fitting room with a dress identical to the one Lily herself donned Although the dress didn’t flatter either of them, and Lily felt mean for even thinking it, the dress at least looked a bit better on her since Marge was a good few sizes larger.

Marge turned in a circle so her mother could examine the dress on her. Sure enough, the zipper was about an inch short of closing completely.

Mrs. Dursley tutted. “Oh no… this just won’t do at all…”

Lily perked up from where she was sitting at Mrs. Dursley’s comment.

“What? The color of the dress?” she asked hopefully.

“No, no, the color’s fine-- it goes absolutely amazingly with Marge’s hair-- oh and it does wonders for her skin complexion-- no, no, we’ll keep the color.”

Lily’s hopes sank again and she resumed her bored position watching Mrs. Dursley examine her daughter still.

“But the dress shape itself is all wrong…I’m assuming that you make alterations and custom made dresses here as well?” Mrs. Dursley asked the attendee who nodded energetically. 

“Excellent. Now, we’ll need an inch or two off the bottom of the dresses-- none of this dragging on the floor business. And we’ll have to loosen all of them up around here,” Mrs. Dursley pointed to a specific spot on the dress. “And tighten just a bit more here. Oh, and none of this strapless business-- it’s just going to bring the pudginess out in my Marge’s arms. No, no, I’d like a nice off the shoulder sleeve, I’d say about…three inches thick maybe-- well, I don’t know, I’ll let you play around with the thickness of sleeves….Well, shouldn’t you be writing this down, young lady?” Mrs. Dursley asked the woman pointedly, who immediately fetched a pad of paper and began scribbling rapidly.

Lily slouched back down and sighed-- this was going to be a long rest of the day, but at least, she was pleased to note, that Petunia looked rather upset at the fact that Mrs. Dursley was completely re-designing the bridesmaid dresses she had picked out. If only, Lily thought to herself, she’d pick another color to go with the new design.

Eight hours, three bridal shops, and one lousy car ride later, Lily found herself back at home. If this was how it was going to be until the wedding, Lily was sure that she would not last very long before emotionally blowing up.

James had been lying on his bed staring at his ceiling, when he heard a rather loud door slam. He wondered which one of his parents had been angry enough to slam a door in the house when he realized that the sound, had in fact come from outside. He peered out his window to find that Lily was in her room pacing, rather like a trapped tiger. And then it dawned on him, it was Lily who had slammed the door so furiously.

James watched her intently, now filling the frame of his window, which he had gone to stand by to get a better look.

Lily paced her room uncontrollably, finding that she felt completely trapped by everything that was going on-- being roped into the wedding, having to behave around the Dursleys, but most of all, playing such a big role in the wedding that she now had to be more involved with planning it than she originally had anticipated.

She tossed the bags she had been holding haphazardly on the bed, not bothering to be gentle, before letting out a frustrated growl.

“Stupid Petunia! Stupid Dursleys! Stupid, damn, wedding! How the hell did I get myself into this!” Lily yelled, thankful that she had at least made sure to cast silencing charms on the surrounding walls of her bedroom, disabling her parents and Petunia, for that matter, to hear her frustrated rant.

“Rough day?” came a familiar but unexpected voice.

Lily looked around slightly startled before finally realizing that the voice had come from outside her window.

She peered out of it, noticing for the first time that James was standing in front of his window, which happened to be directly across from hers.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you that it’s rude to eavesdrop?” Lily asked, trying not to sound amused as she walked over to stand in front of her window so she was now facing James.

James chuckled lightly. “Didn’t yours ever teach you that it’s rude to scream so loud the neighbors will hear you?”

Lily laughed lightly. “Touché, James.”

James joined her in laughing.

“Rough day?” he asked.

“I think that’s understating it.”

“Wanna talk about it?” 

“Not really, no.”

“Oh, alright then, I guess I’ll just let you go to bed-- night, Lily.” James made toward his bed.

“It’s a nice night, isn’t it?” Lily suddenly responded, making James come back to the window.

“Yeah, but that was a slightly random comment.” James chuckled.

“Yeah? Well, here’s another one for you: do you wanna go somewhere?” Lily asked determinedly.

“Huh?” James replied slightly bemused.

“Do you wanna go somewhere? You know, get out of here? With me, right now? I dunno, I just…have the sudden urge to take a walk.”

“Lily, It’s midnight-- not that I know your parents really well, but are they really going to let you go out on a walk at midnight?”

“Who says they have to know?” Lily replied mischievously as she swung one leg over her window sill and climbed down the side of her house with ease, landing on her lawn gracefully.

“My, my, Miss. Evans. It looks as if you’ve had a lot of practice sneaking out your bedroom window in the middle of the night.” James teased.

“Pfft. More than a little but that’s not the point, now what are you waiting for? Get your arse down here, James.”

“Alright, alright, keep your knickers on!” James whispered loudly as he started to climb down from the second story of his house where his bedroom was located.

“I’m not wearing any.” Lily replied cheekily.

“You’re not _what_?!” James replied before he lost his footing and fell very ungracefully, the last three feet to the ground, which, thankfully was padded by grass.

Lily held in pales of giggles which were itching to tumble out of her mouth as she helped James up.

“I can’t believe you, of course I’m wearing knickers, James, you silly goose!”

James growled and mumbled something about how it could have been true and how girls should never joke about knickers.

“Aww, come on, James, I’m sorry-- but you didn’t fall that far, no broken bones, right?”

“No, but I’m going to have a lovely bruise on my elbow come tomorrow morning.” James replied pointing to the junction where his arm and forearm bones met.

“Aww, poor dear.” Lily said, teasingly before grabbing James’ arm and kissing the spot where he had pointed.

“There, all better!” Lily pronounced, letting his arm fall back to his side. “Come on, we’re going this way.”

James stood frozen on the spot, stunned. Lily Evans had just kissed him. Granted that it was on his arm but still-- he never thought he’d live to see the day. The spot where her lips had touched the skin on his arm tingled pleasantly and James had to force himself to follow Lily down the street as a goofy smlie accented his handsome features.

“Lily, where are we going?” James asked when he finally gained control of his brain back.

“Not far don’t worry-- just around this corner actually.” Lily replied as they turned said corner and found themselves in front of a children’s playground.

James followed Lily to the swing set and waited for her to sit down before he began pushing her gently.

He pushed her a few more times before joining her on the swing next to hers and beginning to swing himself.

Eventually they both slowed down, the swings now swaying lightly and their feet dragging in the sand.

“When I was little,” Lily started. “ I used to think that if I swung high enough, eventually the motion would just propel me out and I’d be able to fly and, I dunno, get close enough to reach the stars or something-- it was silly really, but you’d think I’d have taken a little more interest in broom flying classes back in first year, wouldn’t you?”

“you can’t fly?” asked James.

“I can, just not very well-- never got the hang of it really.” Lily mused.

“I’ll teach you.” James offered.

“That’s a nice offer, James, but even being taught by a flyer as good as you, I don’t think I’d be very good-- maybe I should just keep my feet on the ground, I’m a little more graceful that way.” Lily smiled.

“Well, I’ll give you a ride then, one day. Trust me, flying on a broom gives you a better sensation than just swinging…but that teaching offer? It’s open ended so if you ever change your mind…” He trailed off.

“Thanks, James.”

“Lily?” James asked after a rather long pause. “What’s going on? I mean, why were you so upset earlier.”

“My sister, the one you saw on the porch the other day? Well, she’s getting married, did you know?” Lily started.

“Your dad mentioned it to me earlier when I popped by to see if you were around-- I was rather curious to see why you had told me to go home so suddenly.” 

“Yeah, about that. My sister’s just, not what you’d call accepting of what I am, what we are, I should say. She can say some things that are just, mean. I know I can take it when she calls me a freak and what not-- that word doesn’t really phase me anymore because she’s overused it so much but it’s one thing to call me that. It’s a completely different thing for her to call someone I know-- someone she’s never even met--” Lily trailed off.

“You shouldn’t have to take that you know.” James said as he watched Lily nod in response. “So how’s the wedding planning going?”

“Terribly, it’s the most boring thing I’ve ever had to sit through, though I’m sure it’d be more exciting if I were planning my own wedding.” Lily replied.

“So what role are you playing in all of this?” James asked.

“You, my dear, happen to be looking at the Maid of Honor for the Petunia/Dursley wedding.” Lily stated.

“Maid of Honor?” James asked disbelievingly. “Your sister, who seemingly hates you, chose you as her maid of honor?”

“Well that’s just it, she didn’t. It was more my mother really-- you know how mothers are, they have a hand full of those ‘my biggest dream in life’ cards that they just ding you with sometimes and me being the Maid of Honor at Petunia’s wedding happens to be one of them.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad. You’ll get to wear a fancy dress, won’t you?” James asked, trying to be optimistic. “Girls like wearing fancy dresses, don’t you?”

“Oh, well spotted, Captain Obvious.” Lily teased. “Yeah, I guess wearing fancy dresses is fun, but not when you’re wearing one that’s made out of this.” 

She pulled out the sash of magenta material the woman at the store had given each of them, just in case they wanted to match accessories with the dresses and held it out for James to see.

“Well, the color’s not that bad.” James responded. “I’m sure you’ll look gorgeous in whatever dress you have to wear.”

“Are we looking at the same color? Hello?” Lily responded, pulling on her red hair for emphasis. “There are only so many colors in the world that go well with this head of hair and that bright magenta color you’re holding definitely isn’t one of them.” Lily pointed out. “It’s the curse of being born a red head-- trust me, there’s no way I’ll be able to pull that off.” Lily pointed out before taking the sash of fabric back from James and depositing it in your pocket.

“Well, maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll have to change the color of the dresses.” James piped in.

“It’ll take a miracle but that’s a nice thought-- trust me, I know for sure that Petunia chose this color specifically because she knew for one that Mrs. Dursley would approve, and two because she knew it would clash horribly with my hair.”

“Well, that’s some sister you’ve got, and I don’t mean that in a good way.”

“Pfft. Don’t I know it…” Lily replied. “It’s getting late, we should head back, now.” Lily replied standing up.

James stood up along with Lily and walked with her side by side back to their homes.

“Thanks for coming with me, James, you have no idea how much I needed to, well--” Liy trailed.

“It’s okay,” James replied, cutting her off. “I know. And hey, if you need someone to talk to, or to sneak out with in the middle of the night, you know where to find me.”

“I’ll remember that.” Lily replied smiling as she slipped her arm through James’ so they were linked.

“So, will I see you tomorrow?” James asked as they stood at the junction between their houses.

“It is tomorrow, James so technically you’ve already seen me.”

“Har har. You know what I mean.”

“I know. Yeah, I guess you will--” Lily started. “Oh wait! Maybe not-- I have to go pick out napkins and utensils for the wedding.”

“Oh, alright then.” James replied sounding a bit disappointed. “Well, maybe sometime when you’re free.”

“Well,” Lily added quickly. “I’d hate to bore you with wedding details but you’re welcome to come along, we’re leaving at 10:30am-- but you know, no pressure or anything, it is, like I said rather boring.”

“Okay, then.” James answered.

“So, I’d better get back in.” Lily gestured toward her house. “you know, before they realize I’m not in bed.”

“Right. Do you need help up?” 

“What? Climbing up to my room? Thanks, but no, I think I can manage, I’ll just go thorough the front door.” Lily replied walking up to her porch.

“The front door? You mean all this time you could have just used your door to come outside? Then what was the point of climbing out the window?” James asked.

“Well, what fun is it to use your front door when you’re sneaking out in the middle of the night?” Lily asked, smiling. “Good night, James.”

James watched Lily until her front door closed, noiselessly before going inside himself and finally settling down to sleep thinking that he really had a lot to learn about Lily Evans.

****

 

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A/N:

****

Okay so, I feel pretty bad right now because I've had this chapter done for about two weeks but I've just now had the time to upload it on here, but despite my lack of updating in a while, I hope you guys enjoyed chapter 6 anyway!

Please, please, REVIEW because reviews make me happy and keep me inspired to keep writing. I love you all, take care, dearies!

 ~Pamela


	7. When In Doubt, Always Read the Index Cards

** Chapter 7: When In Doubt, Always Read the Index Cards **

 

“Mum! Have you seen my hair barrettes? The ones with the little pink butterflies?” Petunia screamed down the staircase.

Mrs. Evans was bustling downstairs in the kitchen trying to prepare breakfast and talk on the phone, which lately, seemed to have been ringing off the hook.

“Top drawer on your left dear!-- No, mum, not you, Petunia,” Laurie repositioned the phone so it was cradled between her ear and shoulder. “Yes, yes, the wedding’s set for the fifth. Uh huh, the fifth of August. Yes, I know it’s soon but Petunia and-- oh bugger! Hold on mum, I’ve got another call,”

“Mum! The eggs! You’re burning the eggs!” Petunia shrieked coming into the kitchen.

“Petunia, the eggs are fine! Just-- just get the toast, will you?”

“Honey, the phone.” Jeff said, walking through the kitchen.

“Oh dear, I do believe I’ve just hung up on,” Laurie Evans picked up the phone she had accidentally put back on the cradle. 

“Hello? Yes! Hello, Barbara! You what? In the backyard? Our backyard? Well, yes, but I don’t think-- eleven? Okay, we’ll see you then, buh-bye!”

It was to this scene that Lily entered upon; her sister placing toast on the table while looking slightly irritated as always, her father walking in and out because he forgot something, and her mother, bustling about answering the phone which seemed as if it _couldn’t_ stop ringing , while trying to cook breakfast.

“Good morning, darling. I was just about to serve--”

_RIIING!_ the phone rang once more.

“Oh dear, you know that phone hasn’t stopped ringing all morning?” _RIIING!!!_

The phone sounded once more. “Argh, Lily, finish up the eggs, would you?“

Laurie answered the phone again and Lily went over to the steaming skillet her mother had left on the stove.

“Hello? Rose! Golly, I’ve missed you, how’re the kids? Fabulous! Yes, yes she is. On the fifth, that’s right. You’ll be able to come down then? Marvelous! Yes, tell her we’ve picked out the dresses and she’ll just have to go for a second fitting with Lily and Marge, Vernon’s sister, when you all arrive…what’s that, now? Oh, don’t be daft, now, Rose! Hotel, my foot. No, you’ll stay with us. Yes, she can stay in Lily’s room and we’ll put you in the guest room. Alright, yes, see you soon, love. Take care!”

“Breakfast!” Lily called, setting the final plates on the table as her mum hung up the phone again.

“Ugh, sorry, dear, no time-- I’ve got to get to work!” Jeff kissed his wife on the cheek.

“Oh, well…at least take a bit of toast with you,” Laurie wrapped a few slices in a paper napkin and with that, Jeff was out the door.

Petunia shoveled down half of her plate quickly.

“Mum, I’ve got to go meet a couple of friends and hand out some invitations.”

“Petunia, Barbara and Marge’ll be here soon-- they’re coming at eleven,” Laurie said.

“I know, mum, but I have to give them out today-- the wedding’s in a month! What do you expect me to do? Hand them out two weeks before? Then it’ll look as if we’re only inviting them because someone else cancelled and we need them to fill up space!”

“Alright, fine, BUT! I expect you back no later than fifteen minutes late if anything at all, alright?” Laurie kissed her oldest daughter’s cheek.

“Ta-at!” Petunia sang before she too walked out the door.

“Alright, I guess it’s just you and me, huh, Lily?” Mrs. Evans said, sitting at the table. “Unless you have somewhere to be, too?”

“I’m sure I can pencil you into my busy schedule this morning, mum.” Lily laughed before tucking into her breakfast.

“Mum, I told James he could come along today while we did more wedding shopping, is that okay? I mean if there’s no more room in the car that’s fine, I mean I’m sure he wasn’t that excited to go anyway.” Lily said.

“It’s fine, Lily.” her mother smiled at her. “Actually, Barbara called and said she’s arranged for the party rental companies to set everything up here since we’re having the reception in the back yard.”

“Here? But why would she do that?”

“Something about needing to feel how the ambiance will be…” Laurie trailed off as she sipped her tea. “so when did you get the chance to invite James along?”

“Yesterday.” Lily replied, absentmindedly.

“Yesterday? I recall us getting home pretty late, yesterday. That was rather nice of you to stay up and invite him considering you-- oh, how did you put it? ‘loath his entire being.’”

“Loath, is such a strong word,” Lily replied, slightly blushing. “I’d say dislike to the point of almost wanting to pull my hair out.”

Laurie gave her daughter a pointed look.

“Alright, alright! So maybe I don’t dislike him…maybe, just maybe I like him,” Lily paused. “The teensiest bit more than I used to of course.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Laurie replied, sipping her tea.

“Right, thanks, mum.” Lily said, smiling into her breakfast.

The doorbell rang and Laurie looked at her watch.

“Oh hell…oh, bloody hell! She’s forty five minutes early!”

Lily watched her mother scrambling about the kitchen, trying to make it look presentable.

“What? Who?” Lily asked, standing up as well.

“Barbara and Marge-- Barbara called and said she’d be here around eleven but she’s--”

_BRRING!!!_ The doorbell rang again.

“Mum. Mum! Stop. Just go answer the door,” Lily said.

“But the kitchen, it’s filthy,” Laurie trailed as Lily pulled out her wand.

Laurie watched her daughter awestruck. “Lily, have I ever told you how much I love 

That--”

“Yes, I know mum, now go and let Mrs. Dursley in before she has a coronary attack.”

Lily’s mother smiled and dashed out to open the door. She listened to her mother greet the Dursley women as she waved her wand in a sweeping motion, muttering the word ‘Scourgify.’

Almost instantly, the dishes cleared themselves and all the utensils that had been used to make breakfast, packed themselves away in their respective cupboards and drawers.

Lily smiled, satisfied that the two week house hold charms course she had opted to take after classes last year as an elective had finally proven useful.

Not a minute after Lily had stowed her wand away, did her mother come in, leading Mrs. Dursley and Marge toward the backyard.

“Good morning, Mrs. Dursley, Marge.” Lily said.

Mrs. Dursley turned to look at Lily.

“Oh, it’s you, yes. Ah, where is that beautiful soon to be daughter in law of mine?”

“Petunia’s out delivering some last minute invitations, she should be back soon.” Laurie replied.

“Ah yes, well, we can’t keep the party planners waiting! What’s say we all get started and Petunia can join us when she returns?” Mrs. Dursley said. “come along now, Laurie, Marge. I already told them to start setting up out back.”

Mrs. Dursley lead the way out back and with a glance from her mother, Lily knew that even though Barbara Dursley hadn’t specifically told her to come along as well, she was expected to.

Their backyard looked as if it had been transformed into a miniature outdoor market. At least three or four small tents, all of different colors were set up in a small team of men still setting up tables and other miscellaneous party suppies.

“Now, since we’re having the reception out here,” Mrs. Dursley gestured toward the whole of the back yard. “ I figured it’d be best to let the samples come to us! After all, how are we going to know if what we pick goes with the overall décor of your house, Laurie, if we don’t have a good idea of what it’ll look like on the big day?”

Mrs. Dursley went on about the types of napkins you had must match the overall ambiance of the wedding. Lily quickly lost interest and trailed behind the group, pausing at a table on which about ten different styles of eating utensils were laid neatly in order. She picked up one of the forks and examined it before placing it neatly back in its place.

This, was pure and utter madness, she decided. As if anyone in their right mind would really sit down at a table and examine a fork closely enough to decide whether or not it matched with the rest of the wedding decorations.

Lily’s vision suddenly went dark and she felt two hands cover her eyes.

“Guess who?” a deep voice whispered into her ear. Instantly and involuntarily, a trail of goose bumps appeared, scattered across her bare arms.

She smiled and placed her own hands over his.

“I thought the promise of having to pick out napkins and silverware would have surely scared you off, James.”

Lily removed his hands from her eyes and turned to see a smiling James looking back at her.

“Well, honestly? I didn’t actually think you were serious.” James laughed.

“Ha! If there’s one thing you’ll ever learn about Mrs. Barbara Dursley, it’s that she doesn’t joke, period. Especially not about wedding plans that concern her ‘iclke 

Vernie-kins.’-- still sure you want to stay?”

“Oh, Ill find some way to bare it-- especially if it means I get to be with you.” James winked.

Lily forced down a blush and James leaned over to examine the display on the table.

“It all looks the same to me, how come they can’t just pick one?”

“James, James, James! Of course they’re different.” Lily stated matter-of-factly.

“You can’t possibly tell me that this one,” James pointed to a fork. “Doesn’t look exactly the same as that one over there.”

“Of course they’re not the same. That one’s the Flat wear-Chateau dinner fork and the other one over there’s the Bellmore-Melinda style.”

James gave her an odd look. “Do you honestly know everything?”

“Well, I could possibly know everything, including the styles and makes of dining supplies, or I could just be reading all the information off of that spiffy little index card they put under every set that just so happens to tell you what each style is called.” Lily smiled.

“Oh.” James replied lamely.  
“So, did you get lost in the circus of tents, Lily?” Lily turned and saw her mother walking toward her.

“Um, yeah, I just got caught up in this, interesting display.” 

“Hello, Mrs. Evans! How are you?”

“James! So nice to see you again, dear-- Lily mentioned you might be stopping by.” Laurie replied, touching James on the shoulder in a motherly fashion. “How’s your mum doing?”

“Just fine, Mrs. Evans.” James replied.

“Fabulous! Well, I should get back and help Barbara, but do tell your mum I say hello and tell her to swing by sometime for tea, alright?” Laurie began walking back to where Mrs. Dursley was animatedly explaining something to the wedding planner.

“You kids have fun, now!”

Was the last thing Lily heard her mum call out before she was back in the company of the Dursley women.

“So…” James shoved his hands in his pockets.

“So.” Lily lead the way over to another part of her backyard that wasn’t covered in tents.

“Are you expected to hang around here all day?” James asked.

“Sadly, yes.” Lily smiled. “Such is the curse of being the Maid of Honor, even by protest.”

“And there’s no chance of planning an escape?” James replied.

“Ha ha! Definitely not.”

“Even if, perhaps you were to be unsuspectingly kidnapped by, say, the boy next door?”

Lily looked up to see James, one eyebrow raised and smiling mischievously back at her.

She laughed. “As tempting as that sounds, I think I’d better play the good girl card today.”

“But the bad girl card is so much more fun-- not to mention utterly sexy.” James teased.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that…” Lily sat down on a comfortable patch of grass and pulled James to sit down next to her.

“Aw, you’re no fun,” James sat, legs crossed Indian style. “So how are you going to keep me entertained this afternoon then?”

“Well…” Lily sighed as she lay down on the grass, resting the back of her head on her arms.

An hour later, James and Lily were still on the same patch of grass, watching the clouds pass by and sporadically voicing comments aloud to one another.

“That one looks like a seal.” Lily said.

“Which one?”

“ _That_ one.”

“The one next to the blobby looking one?”

“Yes.”

“A seal? That doesn’t look like a seal-- looks more like a platypus if you ask me!”

“A _platypus?_ Does _not!_ It doesn’t look anything like a-- wait a minute, how in the world do you know what a platypus looks like anyway?”

“I saw one once in a book at the library!”

Lily turned herself toward James, propping herself up on one elbow.

“Do I even want to know why you were looking up platypuses in the library?”

“Hey, it’s not as weird as you’re thinking.” James stated. “Peter had to do a last minute report on Australian muggle wildlife for Muggle Studies,”

“Last minute?” Lily quirked up one eyebrow.

“Yes, last minute because he kept putting it off-- but anyway, Sirius, Remus, and I helped him out a bit so he wouldn’t have to stay in the library all night.”

Lily lay back down. “That was nice of you three.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Lily stated.

There was a comfortable pause before James spoke.

“That one looks like Hogwarts.”

“Do you miss it?” Lily asked.

“Yes…you?”

“Do you, I dunno, I guess it sounds silly but, do you ever feel like Hogwarts is more your home than your home is?” Lily asked another question instead.

“All the time.” James said. “It’s scary to think next year will be our last.”

“Definatley.” Lily sighed.

Lily was about to ask another question when she heard someone calling from across the yard, their voice becoming louder.

“Lily!!! Lily! Where are you?”

Lily sat up and turned around, locating the source of the noise.

“Oh, there you are.” Petunia snapped briskly. “Mum says we can’t make the final decisions without your,”

Petunia caught sight of James as he sat up as well and trailed off her sentence.

Lily stood and James followed suit.

“What were you saying?” Lily asked in a voice that clearly said she really didn’t give a shit either way.

“Who’s this?” Petunia asked, arms crossed over her chest.

“Oh, sorry, I’m James, James Potter. We just moved in next door.” James held his hand out in greeting.

“James Potter…James Potter…now why does that name sound familiar? Oh right! You’re the one Lily’s always obsessing over when she comes home from that _place_.

“Sorry,” Petunia smiled forcedly as she noticed James‘ outstretched hand. “I make it a point not to come into physical contact with people who attend that freak school of my sister’s.”

James raised one eyebrow and let his had fall back to his side. Everything that Lily had said about her sister had been true. If anything, Lily had been euphemizing her sister’s prejudice against the magical world.

“Alright, Petunia, that’s enough.” Lily snapped. “Just tell me what you were going to.”

“Mum says we can’t make the final decoration decisions without you so you need to come over and give your final approval.” Petunia said in an annoyed tone.

“Fine.” Lily said curtly. “Tell her I’ll be right there.”

Petunia nodded her head slightly and turned to walk back up the yard.

Lily ran her hand through her ponytail. 

“I told you she was horrible. I am so sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, Lily, really.” James said.

“No, it’s really not.”

James sighed. “Yeah, you’re right, it’s not. It’s not right that you’ve had to put up with this since you first got accepted to Hogwarts. You have a gift Lily, and no one should ever make you feel downsized for that.”

Lily smiled. “I’d better get over there before she comes back.”

James nodded. “See you later I guess?”

“Count on it.” Lily laughed as she walked back over to the tents.

James watched Lily walk away before showing himself out and going back home.

 

 

** A/N: **

Alright, I’m not going to lie, this chapter was definitely not one of my best, it was short and definitely a filler chapter but it had to be written in order to get to the next point in the story. But hey, at least I’m getting better at updating!-- only took me a month from my last chapter! 

The good news is, however, that over the past few weeks, I’ve planned out the next three chapters so ideally, chapter 8 should be out soon.

Also, those of you who have been patiently waiting for an update owe a **HUGE** thanks to my new Mcfly CD, especially track 6, “Too Close For Comfort”, because listening to that song over and over again really helped me churn out this chapter.

So I guess that’s it. As always, **don’t forget to _REVIEW!!!_**

Next chapter is James’ birthday!

Love you guys!

~Pamela


	8. A Case of the Molly Ringwald Blues

** **

A/N:James, I am so sorry for what I’m about to put you through but it’s for the best, trust me. ;-)

****James, I am so sorry for what I’m about to put you through but it’s for the best, trust me. ;-)

Cookies to anyone who catches the “Sixteen Candles” quote in this chapter!

** **

 

****

Chapter 8: A Case of the Molly Ringwald Blues:

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On the morning of July 19th, James awoke bright and early, gingerly getting out of bed and going to look out the window. The weather was perfect-- not a cloud in the sky, and a slight breeze was blowing. James smiled to himself. Today was his seventeenth birthday. Today, he was finally of age in the wizarding world and suddenly, James felt as if some previously untresspassable gates of the world had finally opened up, inviting him in to explore.

James had always loved his birthdays, ever since he was younger, and each birthday, his morning would start off the same. His father would greet him with a tousle on the head and his mother would cook him his favorite breakfast. Although as he got older James began complaining about the fuss his parents made over him on this particular day, secretly, he enjoyed every minute of it.

Excited to discover what awaited him on this birthday, James dressed quickly and headed down the hall where he immediately bumped into his father.

"Hi dad!" James said brightly.

"Oh, hi son! Bye son!" David Potter said in a rushed tone.

"What? But where are you going?" James asked following his dad into the living room.

"No time to chat, James, there's a problem down at the ministry-- no, no, nothing Voldemort related," David added noting the concern in his son's face. "but I do need to get down there quick. Now, where did your mother put that floo powder?"

James watched his father rummage around the nooks and crannies around the fireplace.

"Um, dad? Wouldn't it be faster to, you know, apparate?"

"Good thinking, son!" David Potter said, pulling out his wand.

"Dad, wait!" James called out just before he disappeared.

"What is it, James?"

"It's my...don't you have anything to say to me?" James asked.

"Oh, right. Be good for your mother, will you? Alright, I've really got to go, James." and with a loud CRACK! David Potter was gone.

James frowned, staring at the spot his dad had been standing in seconds before. His dad really couldn't have forgotten his birthday…could he?

__

No, James thought, shoving the thought out of his head, _well, I guess there’s always breakfast with mum to look forward to._

__James thought, shoving the thought out of his head,

James walked into the kitchen inhaling deeply and expecting the odor of fluffy pancakes and scrambled eggs to fill his nostrils, but surprisingly, nothing came. He looked around at the spotless kitchen. Not one of his favorite breakfast foods were on the table and what's more, his mum was no where in sight.

"Mum!" James called out the back door, thinking maybe she had gone to water the flowers before starting up breakfast.

"Over here, darling!"

James followed his mother's voice and found her over by the front door. Moira Potter was dressed in her all too familiar mint green robes with the crossed wand and bone emblem that was custom to the uniform of a Healer.

"Y-you're going to work?" James asked, surprised.

"Yeah, some stupid bloke drank an ounce of Bubotuber puss on a bet and did some major damage to his intestines. The other Healers think it must have been laced with something else because they're having an awful time getting the internal wounds to heal so I've got to go down to St. Mungo’s and help get him stabilized." Moira said as she fastened a black cloak over her work robes.

"But what about breakfast?" James asked.

"Breakfast?" Moira chuckled. "Oh, dear, you're sixteen, I'm sure you're capable of making your own breakfast.

"Alright, I'm off-- I've no idea when I'll be back so if your father happens to beat me home, let him know what's going on, will you, James?"

"You don't _know_ when you'll be back? But what am I supposed to do for the rest of the day?" James asked, starting to panic slightly.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, didn't I? Lily came by earlier and she said she's got something planned out for you today."

" _Lily's_ got something planned?" James asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, so hurry up and get ready, she said she'd bee here to pick you up around 9 or so," Moira said, steering James toward the staircase. "Alright, I've really got to go, love, see you when I get back!"

She kissed her son swiftly atop the head before disappearing with a loud _CRACK!_ just as her husband had done moments before.

James stumbled back a few steps, resting his back on the stair banister.

"I can't believe this," he laughed bitterly. "They _fucking_ forgot my birthday."

Half an hour later, James was sitting on the floor of his kitchen, facing the open refrigerator and drowning his sorrows in his fifth cup of orange juice.

And this was exactly how Lily found him when she came to pick him up.

"Good morning!" came Lily's cheery voice from the kitchen entrance.

James swallowed the orange juice in his mouth. "How'd you get in?"

"Your mum told me she'd charm the door to let me in just in case you overslept, leaving me with the grueling task of having to drag your bum out of bed this morning."

Lily picked up on James' off behavior immediately.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?"

"Dunno, you just seem...well, never mind. Are you set to go? I've got the whole day planned."

"Really? Where are we going?"

"Oh, you'll see." Lily responded as they headed out the front door.

Lily lead the way, walking across the street, and stopped in front of a white house.

"This is where you're taking me?" James asked, one eyebrow raised in question.

"Of course not," Lily said ringing the doorbell. "We're just here to pick up the kids."

" _Kids?!_ "

The door opened and a blonde woman with a kind smile came into view.

"Oh good, Lily, you're just in time, and I see you've brought a friend."

"Yes, Mrs. Barrett, this is James. James moved in across the street a few weeks ago." Lily explained.

"Wonderful! Well, it's nice to meet you, James." Mrs. Barrett replied. "Well, I expect you'll want to get going, let me just go call the children-- Katherine! Theodore!"

Mrs. Barrett called her children's names as she walked up the stairs.

"Why didn't you tell me we were babysitting?" James asked.

"I told your mum to pass the message along-- did she not tell you? Huh, that's funny, I told her to tell you what we'd be doing today, she must have forgotten." Lily said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, she seems to have forgotten a few key things today." James said bitterly.

"James, are you sure there's nothing bothering you?" Lily asked again. "Nothing you want to tell me at all?"

"No, I'm fine Lily, honest." James said, forcing a smile.

James didn't know why he was lying to her. He could have just told her that it was his birthday, that everyone had forgotten, but for some reason, James didn't. Part of him, the part that was being slightly selfish, was telling him to keep quiet and see just how long it would take his parents to remember they had forgotten today was his birthday.

There were pounding footsteps on the stairs and James could just make out two small figures bounding towards them, who at the last minute, threw themselves upon Lily.

"Lily! Lily! We missed you!" A small girl with golden pigtails said.

"Yeah, how come you don't come play with us anymore?" asked a sandy haired, slightly taller boy.

"Aw," Lily hugged them back. "I missed you both too-- are you guys ready to go?"

They both nodded enthusiastically.

"Mummy says you're taking us to the beach-- can we build a sand castle, Lily? I've never built a sand castle before." the little boy said.

"Sure kid," Lily said, laughing. "But first, we've got to get there."

James watched the interaction between Lily and the children until he suddenly got the feeling someone was watching him. He looked down and found himself locking eyes with a pair of denim blue ones belonging to the small girl with pigtails.

The small girl blushed furiously and immediately looked away, giggling and realizing she had been caught staring. It was at this moment that the young boy also took notice of James' presence.

"Lily, who's that?" the boy asked, pointing at James.

"I'm a friend of Lily's-- my name's James." James said, introducing himself to the children.

The boy looked at him as if deciding weather he liked him or not before finally responding.

"I'm Theodore. Theodore Rodger Johnson Barrett the third-- but you can call me Theo, no one calls me Theodore 'cept my mum and sometimes Lily when I get in trouble."

James smiled at Theo before turning to the blonde haired girl who was currently plastered at Lily's side.

"And who might this lovely young lady be?" James asked, kneeling down so he was more at the young girl's height.

"I'm Katie."

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Katie." James replied, giving her the infamous James Potter grin.

Katie giggled and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Hey, ease up on the charm attempt, Potter, she's eight, not eighteen." Lily said.

"As disturbed as I am that you're implying I'm some sort of pedophile, Lily, I can't help but be excited by the fact that you've finally admitted I've got charm." James replied cheekily as he stood back up to his full height.

"Ah, James, don't boost your ego to an even larger size than it already is or you'll run the risk of having to find a planet much larger than this one in order to make room for it."

"Oh, Miss Evans, why must you stab my already wounded heart with your repeated rejection?" James cried, holding one hand to his chest as if in agony.

"Drama Queen." Lily muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Alright. So here's everything you should need," Mrs. Barrett said, appearing once more. "sun block, toys, towels, food, you know."

"Thank you, Mrs. Barrett. Well, we're off then, and I'll be sure to have the children back by seven."

"That's fine, Lily dear. Have fun, everyone!" Mrs. Barrett called as they walked away down the street.

"So we're going to the beach?" James asked.

"That's right." Lily said.

"how are we getting there?"

"The way everyone gets anywhere in this town-- we're taking the trolley."

"You can take the trolley to the beach?"

"You can take the trolley almost everywhere." Theo said, jumping into the conversation.

"The yellow line will take you downtown and the red one will take you to the east end," Theo explained. "The orange line takes you to the west end and the green line, that's the one we're taking, goes to the beach."

"And when did you become so knowledgably on the local trolley lines?"

Theo shrugged. "Our old babysitter, Sam, she used to take the trolley all the time. One time she left the trolley schedule booklet over our house and I read up on it."

"Smart kid." James commented.

"I know I am." Theo replied.

"Mum calls him exceptionally bright for his age-- but sometimes I just call him annoying." Katie said.

"Hey!" Theo called, as he started chasing Katie around the sidewalk for having poked fun at him.

Katie shrieked and quickly ran off, trying to get away.

"Come back here!" Theo called.

Realizing her brother was gaining on her quickly, Katie ducked behind James, effectively using him as a human shield.

"Save me, James! Don't let Theo get me!" Katie squealed, peering around James' left leg to see where Theo was.  
Theo spotted Katie and dashed in James' direction but just as he ran past Lily, Lily caught him gently by the arm and pulled him back.

"Nuh-uh! No running around like that near the street, it's dangerous. Now, hold my hand so we can cross to the trolley stop." Lily said.

Theo took Lily's hand at once. "Katie, hold on to James' hand when you cross the street, please!" Lily called out.

"I think it's safe for you to come out now." James said to Katie who was still hiding behind him.

James was rather tall to begin with and Katie looked to be small for her age, meaning she barely reached his waist in height.

"I dunno," Katie replied warily, looking across the street to where her brother and Lily were standing. "Theo's pretty tricky."

"Yeah, but if we don't cross the street we'll miss the trolley and we won't be able to go to the beach-- you wouldn't want that would you?"

"Okay, fine! But if Theo starts chasing me again--" 

"If Theo starts chasing you again, I'll protect you." James interjected. "I think I could take him, what do you think?"

James winked at Katie who laughed but finally consented to hold his hand and cross the street.

Twenty minutes later the four were sitting together on the trolley on their way to the beach.

"Are we there yet?" James asked.

"For the thousandth time, no, James!" Lily sighed, looking up from her book to answer him.

"Oh," James replied. "When are we going to get there?"

"Soon!" Lily snapped. "Honestly, you're worse than Katie and Theo who are half your age, mind you. Plus, I'm starting to get the feeling that you're only asking to annoy me."

James' eyes twinkled mischievously behind his glasses as he grinned. "Now what in the world would give you that idea?"

Lily slouched in her seat and averted her eyes upward.

"Why me?" She said, as if talking to some superior being.

Katie looked at the two teens observantly.

"Are you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" she asked.

"No!" Lily said quickly, just as James said "Yes."

"James!" Lily elbowed him in the side.

"Oof! I mean, no, we're not...not yet anyway."

"No, not _ever._ " Lily corrected, going back to her book.

"One day, Lily Evans I'll get you to fall for me, and then we'll go out and you'll finally realize just what you've been missing this whole time." James replied surely.

"You know," Lily said, marking her place and closing her book. "I hear taking permanent residence in dreamland can cause severe brain damage." Lily said knowingly. "So purely for the sake of your sanity and intelligence I ask you, are you ever going to give up, James?"

The grin that was plastered on James' face slowly fell.

"I'll never give up on you, Lily." he said solemnly.

Lily's eyes locked with his and she wanted nothing more than to look away but it was as if some invisible magnetic force wouldn't let her.

"We're here! Look! you can see the water!" Theo exclaimed, pressing his nose up against the window.  
“Alright kids, get all your stuff together-- we don’t want to leave anything behind.” Lily said, finally able to look away.

“Denny Beach stop, please use the back exit!” came the raspy voice of the driver.

“Uh, where’s the beach?” James asked looking around.

“Just over that little hill. Cone on, slow pokes!” Katie called, running up the hill after Theo.

“Hey, slow down, Theo and Katie, and don’t go near the water until James and I get there!” Lily warned.

By the time Lily and James had trekked up the hill, the children had already picked a spot on the beach and were in the process of laying out a rather large blanket.

“Can we play in the water now, Lily?” Katie asked.

“Wait, sunscreen first, then you can go play.” Lily replied responsibly. “Now don’t go too far in,” Lily warned before sending them off. “waist deep only!”

Then, making sure no one was watching, Lily pulled out her wand and pointed it toward where Katie and Theo were playing in the water. The tip of her wand glowed faintly pink as she cast the spell, and then she pocketed it once more.

“What was that?” James asked.

“I ordered a book through the Daily Prophet a few years back, ‘Handy Spells and Tricks for Babysitting.’ the boundary spell I just cast is from there-- makes it so they won’t go further out in the water than I want them to.” Lily explained, shrugging out of her sundress to reveal a simple black bikini top and a pair of shorts.

“Did you not bring a bathing suit?” Lily asked, feeling James’ stare on her.

“No. Might have thought to bring one if you’d have told me where we were going.” James replied.

Once again, Lily cautiously pulled out her wand and aimed a spell at James’ trousers, which immediately transfigured themselves into a pair of red swimming shorts.

“There.” Lily said, putting her wand away again.

“I thought you were rubbish at Transfiguration.” James replied, admiring her spell work.

“Well, I am for the most part, but bathing suits I can do,” Lily said. “The girls and I learned how back in second year during that heat wave-- much safer than skinny dipping in the lake.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that,” James said. “I think that’s the hottest it’s ever been at Hogwarts, but that’s some pretty advanced magic for a second year-- I’m impressed.”

“Well, I’ve only ever done girls suits so you’re just lucky you didn’t end up in a yellow polk-a-dotted bikini.” Lily laughed.

James cringed. “Dear Merlin, that would have scarred me for life!”

“Scarred you?” Lily laughed. “I probably never would have been able to look at you again!”

“Mmm…I’d imagine you’d have gone into withdrawal syndromes if you’d never be able to look at _my_ godly physique ever again.” James said, flexing his muscles and puffing his chest out.

Lily scowled and James laughed at Lily’s obvious disapproval.

“Keep laughing, James, but don’t be surprised if you suddenly find yourself sporting that bikini.” Lily said sweetly.

James stopped laughing and searched Lily’s face before smiling once more.

“You’re bluffing.” he said finally.

“Am I?” Lily asked “Well, I guess you could always find out the hard way…then again, if you’re so sure I won’t do anything to embarrass you, by all means, keep it up.”

James laughed off Lily’s threat but all the same, from then on he was careful not to tease her too much, just in case.

The rest of the day passed leisurely as the four enjoyed the beach. Katie and Theo took a break from playing in the water to eat sandwiches for lunch with James and Lily and after, the four built what Theo dubbed as ’the best sand castle ever.’

Although at first James though his day with Lily would be ruined with having to baby-sit, he had to admit, he was enjoying himself. So much in fact that he had almost forgotten the fact that no one had remembered today was his seventeenth birthday. But, as it always goes, no matter how much you try pushing unpleasant thoughts or memories to the back of your head, they have a knack for resurfacing just when you think you’ve gotten rid of them, which is why, as the day was drawing to an end, James was once again bitterly remembering that everyone had forgotten his birthday.

“Again with the sad face!” Lily commented looking over at James who was staring out into the ocean moodily. “Really now, can’t you just tell me what’s got you so upset?”

James sighed.   
“I can’t.”

“Sure you can.” Lily countered.

“Well I know I _can_ , I just--” James trailed off. “You know what I mean, Lily.”

“Fine, but if you don’t tell me what’s bothering you, I can’t help you fix it, or at least, make you feel a bit better about it.”

“No offense, Lily, but I don’t think even you could fix this one.” James said bitterly.

“Maybe not,” Lily shrugged. “but I think I have something that might cheer you up a bit.”

Lily turned around and rummaged through a small blue cooler she had brought along to the beach, her back to James, effectively shielding whatever she was pulling out.

When she turned around, in her hand was a frosted chocolate cupcake with a single lit candle on top.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,” Lily sang. “Happy birthday dear James, happy birthday to you.”

She handed James the cupcake and he took note for the first time that she had even taken care to write ‘Happy 17th Birthday James” around it’s perimeter.

“Well, aren’t you going to make a wish and blow out the candle?” Lily asked expectantly.

James blew the candle out with ease before speaking for the first time since Lily had acknowledged it was his birthday.

“But, how did you know?”

"I have my sources," Lily said cryptically. "I was just surprised your parent's didn't have anything planned out for today-- your mum didn't even mention it was your birthday when I came by this morning."

"That's because she forgot-- they all did, my mum. my dad, Sirius, Remus, Peter-- all of them."

"That's why you've been off all day." Lily deduced.

James nodded.

"You're the only person who remembered which means, this, is as far as my birthday celebrations go this year." James replied glumly.

"Well, actually, you've still got to open my present." Lily said.

"You bought me a present?" James asked, perking up immediately.

"Actually no-- I didn't really have time to go buy you an actual present but I do have something for you." Lily handed James an envelope which he took and opened immediately.

Inside was a simple birthday card with the message:

__

Dear James~

__

Sorry I couldn't get you a real birthday present, what with

__

all the wedding planning, It was near impossible

__

To get down to the store. So instead, I'm giving you three, 

__

non-refundable, good anytime anywhere wishes-- Just think 

__

of me as your personal genie to an extent. So think carefully about what you'd like to wish for, birthday boy, and let me know. Hope your 17th birthday's everything you hoped it would be.

__

~ Lily

__

"Three wishes, huh?" James commented, looking up from his card.

"Yup."

"And I can wish for _anything_ I want?"

Lily paused before answering him. "Yes," She said warily. "Why? Do you have something in mind already?"

"Actually, yes." James said smiling. "Can we go into London? Just me and you?"

"That's what you want? TO go into London?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Well, I've never really been-- I mean, I've been in passing, but I've never really experienced the whole of London or seen any of the sights."

"So you want a muggle tour of London?"

"Exactly."

"Alright." Lily said, "We'll go sometime this week or next. So, Mr. James Potter, that's one wish down, anything else?"

"Don't suppose you could turn back time and make it so everyone actually remembered it was my birthday, could you?" James asked, hollowly.

"No, probably not." Lily replied. "But tell me anyway, if no one had forgotten, what would have been your ideal birthday?"

"Well," James sighed "Breakfast with mum and dad like every year, and a party in the evening-- nothing big or extravagant, just my parents, maybe a few other relatives, Sirius, Remus, Peter," James listed. "and, you.-- that's what I'd wish for."

Lily smiled. "That would have been nice. You can definitely count me in for next year, though." she joked.

"Okay, consider yourself formally invited for next year then." James laughed.

"It's getting late," Lily said, noticing the sun was beginning to descend. "We should get going if we want to have the kids back by seven or so. Why don't you go round them up while I pick up a bit here."

"Alright," James said, walking toward the shore where Katie was trying to burry Theo in the sand.

The ride home felt shorter than the ride up, in James' opinion and having exhausted themselves out, Katie and Theo had fallen asleep almost instantly.

The trolley lurked to a stop and Lily made to wake up Katie, who was the only one still sleeping.

"It's alright," James said stopping her. "let her sleep, I'll carry her home."

"Are you sure?" Lily asked.

"Positive." James replied, scooping the small girl up in his arms and following Lily and Theo out into the street.

When they reached the Barrett house, Mrs. Barrett answered the door almost instantly.

"Did you kids have fun at the beach?" she asked, smiling broadly.

"So much fun! I wanna go again." Theo said through a yawn.

Lily nodded. "Katie fell asleep on the way home. I was going to wake her but James insisted on carrying her and letting her sleep."

Mrs. Barrett looked over at James who was still carrying an obviously sleeping Katie Barrett.

"Well, that was very sweet of you dear-- thank you so much for carrying her home."

Katie stirred at the sound of her mother's voice. "Are we there yet?" she asked sleepily as she opened her eyes.

"Yeah, you're home, kid." James answered softly.

"Oh, okay." Katie yawned.

James put her down and tugged on his slightly wrinkled shirt.

"Well, Mrs. Barrett, James and I better get going." Lily said.

"Oh yes, of course-- Katherine, Theodore, say goodbye and thank you to Lily and James and then I want you both to go get ready for bed." Mrs. Barrett ordered.

The children muttered tired goodbyes and then ascended the stairs slowly.

"Well, thanks again Lily, you're a lifesaver!" Mrs. Barrett commented, walking them to the door. "And be sure and hang on to that one," she said, nodding in James' direction. "he's definitely a keeper."

"Oh, no, Mrs. Barrett, James and I, we're not together." Lily corrected, feeling a blush beginning to creep up.

"Well, then if I may suggest," Mrs. Barret whispered slyly. "Snatch him up before someone else beats you to it, darling."

Lily coughed in embarrassment. "Good night, Mrs. Barrett."

Mrs. Barrett chuckled at Lily's flustered expression. 

"So what was Mrs. Barrett whispering to you about?" James asked as they walked toward their houses.

"Oh nothing, something about my sister's wedding." Lily lied, walking toward James' front door.

She turned around to tell James to open the door and realized he was not behind her but walking toward her house.

"James, where are you going?" Lily asked.

"Uh, I'm trying to walk you home." James answered, gesturing toward Lily's house. "Where are you going?"

"James, it's eight o'clock-- the night is young, and I'm not about to leave you alone now and have you spend the rest of your birthday wallowing at home alone, _again_ "

"Wallowing?" James echoed. "Lily, I haven't been wallowing all day--"  
"Oh really?" Lily crossed her arms. "Need I remind you in what state I found you in this morning?"

"I-I was enjoying a nice cup of orange juice, is that a crime?" James said.

"Nooo, you were _wallowing!_ " Lily said. "Now come on, I already told you, you're not spending the rest of your birthday alone so come over here and open the door-- I'm sure we can find something fun to do in here." Lily said, moving to the side so James could open the door.

James opened the door to his house and Lily stepped in behind him, closing the door.

"Why's it so dark in here?" James asked, rhetorically, walking toward the living room. "And who the hell closed all the blinds and curtains--"

"SURPRISE!!!"

Upon entering the living room, the lights flicked on to reveal a small group of people including his parents, grandparents and a few of his aunts and uncles standing before him and smiling brightly.

James was taken aback.

"Oh honey, don't look so horrified!" Moira exclaimed, going over to give her son a hug.

"But, I thought you'd all forgotten!" James said.

"Now that's silly," David Potter said, giving James' already messy hair a tousle. "How could we ever forget your birthday?"

"So, you guys really knew this whole time? What about working all day?" James asked.

"We made it up," Moira said, simply. "We knew the only way you'd believe us is if you thought we were too busy to remember."

"And you had this all planned?" James asked.

"Actually, it was Lily's idea-- she wanted to plan something nice for your birthday," David said. "We've been planning it out with her for a week now."

James looked over at Lily who was smiling mischievously at him.

"I should have known you'd have had something to do with this." James said, grinning.

"Well, I had to find some way to make your seventeenth birthday unforgettable." Lily replied, walking to stand next to James.

"I still can't believe you put me through all that grief though-- you had me wallowing, for Merlin’s sake!" James exclaimed.

"Oh, you know I only did it because I care!" Lily said, shrugging.

But before James could ask Lily to further expand on her reasoning, his Aunt Mindy had walked into the living room, carrying with her a marvelous looking cake, with seventeen lit candles, which was everyone's cue to sing 'Happy Birthday.'

James was seated near Lily and his parents, when all of a sudden, the Potter's fireplace burned an emerald green, and a swooshing sound emitted from it. The emerald flames parted and the bobbing head of Remus Lupin appeared.

"Moony!" James exclaimed, dashing over to crouch on his knees by the fire.

"Happy birthday, James." Remus replied.

"So you didn't forget either?" James asked.

Remus laughed. "Sorry, James, I would have sent your birthday card sooner but Lily told me to wait and make absolutely sure it didn't get to you before tonight-- you should be getting it soon though. And I take it, your surprise birthday idea turned out well, judging by James' reaction." Remus said, directing the last part of his comment to Lily , who had come over to the fireplace as well.

"Yup, he was completely surprised-- you should have seen him, moping around all day-- thanks for tipping me off about his birthday though." Lily said.

"Wait, _Remus_ was the one who told you?" James asked, shocked.

"Hey, I told you I had my sources!" Lily said.

"Well, Prongs, I've got to run, but enjoy the rest of your party." Remus said.

"Aw, do you have to go, Moony? Can't you floo over and stay for a bit?" James asked.

"No, mum, doesn't think it's such a good idea what with, well, you know," Remus trailed off.

"Right," James said, "Well, I'll see you sometime before school starts up, then? You're going to meet up with us at Diagon Alley, right?"

"Definitely." Remus grinned. "Alright, take care, James, Lily."

"Bye, Remus!" Lily said, blowing a kiss at him, and causing a small flash of jealousy to flood through James.

Remus smiled and with a small POP! vanished.

"Well, I must say, you certainly thought of everything-- even remembering to tell my friends not to owl me in the morning." James said.

"Of course." Lily smiled. "It never would have worked if I didn't-- and speaking of owls." Lily motioned over to the window where two large owls were tapping on the glass.

James immediately went over, and opened the window, retrieving the letters from each of the owls legs. 

James opened the first envelope, recognizing the handwriting at once to be Peter's. Peter had sent him a birthday card along with some of his mum's home made fudge.

The second birthday card was from his best friend, Sirius.

__

Dear James~

__

I wish I could have been there to celebrate your seventeenth birthday-- by now you probably already know about the surprise party your parents have been planning for you as well. Even though I imagine you're enjoying yourself, I'm sure you're not having as much fun as you would be without me around to cause some sort of mischief! So, my best friend, and brother, have a happy seventeenth birthday and enjoy every minute of it,

__

after all, you only turn seventeen once! And don't worry, when I get back from Andromeda's, we'll go out and have a belated birthday celebration. 

__

Hope you're doing well, and say hi to the parents for me,

__

~Sirius

__

The party went on for a couple more hours, in which James opened up a generous stack of presents and his relatives took part in revealing their favorite memories from James' childhood. One by one, the guests dwindled until the only people left were James, his parents, and Lily. And after helping his mum pick up the living room, James offered to walk Lily home.

"I think that was one of the best birthday's I've ever had-- thank you." James said.

"You’re welcome... you got some nice gifts." Lily replied, not knowing what to say.

"Yeah, but I think I like yours the best, and, I have two wishes left."

"Actually, you're down to one." Lily said as they reached her front door.

"Whaddyamean?" James asked, "I only wished for one thing! I have two wishes left!"

"No, I distinctly remember you wishing that your family had remembered your birthday, and they did. Plus, I think you also wished along with that, for a small family oriented party which I provided you with, so, you see, you're down to one wish." Lily said.

"That's so cheap," James replied. "But I'll let it slide for throwing me the best 17th birthday party ever."

A silence passed between them as they stood on Lily's front porch.

"Happy birthday, James." Lily said, breaking the silence.

And then, Lily surprised James by doing something she had never done before. It happened so fast that James barely even had time to register the fact that Lily's arms had gone around him, and that she was hugging him. James felt as if he had barely wrapped his own arms around her before she pulled away quickly.

"Well, good night!" Lily said, slipping through her front door and vanishing from sight.

James stood there smiling goofily for a moment more before walking back to his own house. As of yet, he still didn't know where he stood with one, Lily Evans, but at the moment, that didn't really matter to him. Lily had hugged him and James felt as though he could have floated back to his house if he had wanted to. It was the perfect ending to the absolutely perfect seventeenth birthday.

 

** **

A/N:

****

So…what did you all think? I hope this chapter lived up to everyone’s expectations-- I know a lot of you were pretty excited for it so I just hope I did it justice! J 

Hmm…well, like I mentioned in chapter 7, I do have the next three chapters planned out so hopefully chapter 9 will be out soon but I’m not making any promises-- school’s keeping me pretty busy but even so, I’m trying to make time at least once a week to sit down and do some writing.

As always, your reviews inspire me to keep writing so please _, please **REVIEW!**_

Take care!

~Pamela

Oh, and just as a side note…does anyone listen to MuggleCast? Is anyone going to be at the live LeakyMug this Thursday in LA? If you are, I am very, very jealous of you seeing as how I’m not allowed to go…::sigh::

  



	9. Allegedly, Wish Number Two

A/N: Many of you have been asking where we are in terms of time in the summer. James’ birthday was on 7/19 and wish #2 takes place later that same week so we’re still on that middle-ish/third week of July with the Evans/Dursley wedding fast approaching. ((remember, the wedding is set for the first week of August.J))

 

Chapter 9: Allegedly, Wish Number 2:

 

Just as James had requested in his first wish, Lily planned an outing for the two of them in London for later that same week.

On Thursday, Lily once again showed up bright and early- seven in the morning to be exact- on the Potter’s doorstep only this time, James was ready to go. They jumped on the first running trolley, James still bleary eyed from having been woken up so early. Somewhere along the way, James must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew, he was being shaken gently awake by Lily.

“James,”� Lily said, gently shaking him awake.

“Huh?”� James yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes   
before opening them to look at her.

“Um, we’ve got to transfer now.”� Lily said, standing up and motioning toward the exit.

James stood up, stretched and followed her out into a rather large terminal.  
“Are we here already? How long was I asleep for?”� 

“About fifteen minutes-- not long, but no, we’re not. The trolley doesn’t go all the way into London- just to the underground station.”�

“So, we’ve got to take another trolley?”� James asked, making sure to keep up with Lily as the underground station was rather busy.

“No, we’ve got to get on to the tube-- well, underground train would be the correct term, I guess-- it’s a bit different than the trolley, though.”� Lily said, walking over to a nearby till where she purchased tickets for the both of them.  
“Here.”� she said, handing James his ticket. “You’ll need that to get in, but don’t lose it-- that’s our ticket to get around the city and to get back home. Now, just follow my lead and try not to look to awestruck by the Muggle world.”� Lily said.

James nodded and followed Lily down an escalator and into the actual underground, which, was surprisingly a great deal warmer than where they had purchased their tickets due to a warm breeze that was floating through the tunnel.  
They didn’t have to wait long before a rumbling sound could be heard coming from a tunnel to their left. A white underground train emerged and stopped abruptly in front of them. There was a blue strip running along the top with the words ‘Piccadilly Line’ in bold white letters.

“This is us.”� Lily said, motioning for James to move closer to one of the compartment doors. A slew of morning commuters filed out of the compartments, briefcases and travel coffee mugs in hand and Lily and James waited for the last one to scurry out before boarding one of the compartments.  
“Mind the gap, please!”� said a cool disembodied female voice over the intercom.  
The train started up with a lurch and before James knew it, they were zipping through the tunnels of the London underground.  
“So, how long do we ride this for?”� James asked as the train approached Earl’s Court Station.

“Five stops-- well, four, counting this one.”� Lily said, speaking over the same female voice over the intercom.

“Mind the gap, please!”�

“Does it always do that? Announce what station the train’s stopping at and tell people to mind the gap?’”� James asked.

“Yeah. ’Mind the gap’ is quite the catch phrase amongst tourists, you know.”� Lily said, thinking of the many shirts and mugs which bore these words in various souveniere shops around the city.

When the train started moving for the third time, Lily turned toward James again.  
“Alright, next stop is ours, James so be ready to get off quickly-- this is a busy station.”� Lily said.

“Um, okay.”� James said, not paying much attention to Lily’s advice.

“Piccadilly Station. Change here for the Jubilee Line.”� 

“Alright, let’s go!”� Lily said, hipping off the now crowded train quickly.

James suddenly realized exactly why Lily had advised him to exit the train quickly.  
After pushing himself through the crowd to the sliding doors, James found himself swimming against the tide as a slew of other passengers began boarding, making it impossible for James to get off.  
Lily turned to ask James if there was a specific place he wanted to visit first and realized for the first time that James was not behind her but still in the train compartment.

“James! What do you think you’re doing? Get out here!”� Lily called, walking briskly back to the train.

James heard Lily’s voice and suddenly saw the red mass that was Lily’s hair waiting for him on the platform.  
“Lily, I’m coming! I just have to-- there!”� James said, rather triumphantly, having finally reached the sliding doors.  
James was about to join Lily on the platform when suddenly, the doors shut tightly.

“Oh, bugger.”� James said. “Lily! Lily! How do I open this thing?!”� James called tapping on the glass windows.

“Holy mother of--”� Lily exclaimed. “What an idiot.-- James, James, listen to me! Push the red button-- the RED BUTTON!”� Lily called, trying to get James to push the emergency button which would open the compartment doors.

“What are you talking about? There’s no button, Lily I don’t see it!”� James said, just as the train started to slowly move.

And then, it was Lily’s turn to say ‘Oh bugger.’ as the train started to depart from Piccadilly Station.

“James, just listen to me, okay?”� Lily said, jogging along with the train next to James. “Don’t panic! Just get off at the next stop! The next stop, James!”�

But whether or not James had heard what Lily had been trying to tell him, she did not know, for the train had suddenly picked up speed and in the blink of an eye, it was completely out of sight, traveling through the underground tunnels once more.

James could see Lily’s mouth moving but could barely make out what she was trying to say over the rumbling of the train as she ran along side it. James lost sight of Lily as the train entered another dark tunnel. ‘This’ thought James ‘is probably why mum and dad never go into muggle- London.’

“Bugger! Bugger! Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!”� Lily muttered, pacing back and forth at the edge of the platform. “his mum’s going to kill me-- MY mum’s going to kill me! Leave him alone for five minutes and what does he do? Gets himself locked in a tube compartment-- Like taking care of a two year old!”�   
Just then, the next train arrived at the platform and Lily was the first to get on immediately after the doors opened. “Bugger, James.”� Lily muttered, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the doors to close and the train to start moving. “If you weren’t smart enough to get off at the next stop…”�

 

The ride between Piccadilly Station and Trafalgar Square was not five minutes long, but to James, it felt like an eternity. When the doors to the compartment finally opened, James all but ran off the train; he didn’t know where he was, but James figured getting off here was better than riding around infinitely on the underground. It wasn’t until after he watched the underground train depart that James realized he didn’t have the slightest inkling as to where he should be going. Resisting the urge to sit on the floor and cry while he waited for someone to come find him like he had that one time he had gotten lost as a five year old boy in Diagon Alley, James opted to sit on a nearby bench. As he sat and waited, he pondered his options. ‘The Blacks like in London.’ James thought-- he had been to pick up Sirius loads of times over the years. But the Blacks wouldn’t help him-- especially since him and his parents had been the ones to take Sirius in earlier this summer when he had run away from home. Next, James thought of going to Diagon Alley. ‘Of course, why didn’t I think of this before! Tom’ll give me some floo powder so I can get home, then I can owl Lily and tell her I’m home safe-- it’s perfect!’ There was only one problem with this plan, James realized. He neither knew how to get to Diagon Alley from here, nor did he know how far away it was. James sighed, running a hand through his hair and making it stick up, if possible, more than was normal, a single thought running thorugh his mind:   
‘Come on, Lily. Where are you?’ 

“Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.”� Lily chanted softly as the train approached Trafalgar Square station.   
The compartment doors slid open and Lily leaped off immediately scanning the slew of people for some sight of James Potter. She stood on her tip-toes to get a better view over the tops of people’s heads, fearing for the first time that maybe James hadn’t gotten off here but was still riding the underground. Lily suddenly got a feeling similar to the sensation one gets when they swallow an ice cube whole and it settled in the pit of her stomach-- she was worried, but then, she saw it, the sight she had been looking for. There, by an overly enlarged map of the underground, she spotted a tuft of hopelessly disheveled black hair that could only belong to one person. The sight made her heart flutter-- with relief and in a completely plutonic way, of course.-- and Lily immediately began pushing her way toward James’ direction, a rather large grin beginning to spread across her lips.

Taking a look at the Underground map seemed like a logical idea a the time, but now, James wished he had never thought of it for looking at the map, had confused him even more. Lines going this way and that; blue ones, yellow ones, brown ones, thin black ones and dotted ones-- it was making him dizzy. How in the world did Muggles make heads or tails of it? James thought to himself as he leaned in to examine the map more closely. He was deep in concentration when suddenly, the sound of his own name being called caused is head to jerk automatically up, and the next thing he knew, James’ sight was blinded momentarily by a bunch of fiery red hair as Lily flung herself on him in a crushing hug.

“James!”� Lily cried, hugging him tightly. “God, you have no idea…I thought I’d lost you.”�   
“It’s alright, Lily-- I’m fine, honest.”� James said, returning her hug, feeling giddy at the thought that Lily cared enough to have been worried about him.

“You are?”� Lily asked, pulling away. James nodded, smiling.   
“Good, well, in that case.”� Lily slapped his arm hard.   
“Ouch!”� James yelped.   
“Don’t you EVER do anything like that again! Do you have any idea what could have happened to you if you hadn’t gotten off here? Next time LISTEN to me when I TELL you to do something, you prat!”� Lily exclaimed hitting him ever so often to emphasize her point.   
“Ouch! Ooof! Okay, okay, calm down Lily, I’m sorry, really.”� James said, trying to dodge her hands.

“Good, you should be.”� Lily said, crossing her arms over her chest.  
James frowned, looking much like a small child would right after being punished. Lily rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand in hers.

“Come on,”� she said, pulling him toward an adjacent platform.

“Wha-- where are we going?”� James asked, looking down at the had that was currently clasped in Lily’s.

“We’re going back to Piccadilly Station, but if you think for one second I’m going to let you wander off again, you’ve got another thing coming.”� Lily said, dragging James into the recently arrived underground train and seating him in the chair nearest the sliding doors.

“you,”� James said suddenly, “Are going to make one good mother in the future.”�

“Okay, where did that come from and what makes you think that?”� Lily asked.

“Well, you’ve got a natural maternal instinct, plus, you’ve got the ‘I’m very disappointed in you, young man’ look pretty much set.”�

“This is a strange conversation.”� 

“Why?”�

“Come on, James, we’re talking about my future kids and my mothering skills; that alone is strange in itself.”� Lily said.

“I don’t think it is.”� he replied, seriously.

“No, I should have guessed you wouldn’t.”� Lily said, laughing lightly.

“Do you think I’d make a good father someday?”� James asked.

“And the conversation keeps getting stranger.”� Lily said, looking out at the passing tunnel walls.

“You didn’t answer my question-- I was being serious.”� James said.

Lily looked at him and breathed deeply. “I don’t know, James.”�

“Yes you do-- come on, Lily, I’m genuinely curious. Do you think I’d make a good dad?”� James pressed.

“Sure.”� Lily said finally. “I bet you’ll have kids who look just like you-- Sirius will be godfather, presumably-- and the both of you will teach them how to cause mayhem and mischief wherever they go and when they get to Hogwarts, Filch’ll probably die of a heart attack and spend another seven years chasing a new generation of marauders.”� Lily joked. “you’ll be one of those fun-type dads.”�

“Is that a bad thing?”� James asked.

“Not if you know where do draw the line. Either that, or hope that your future wife, whoever she is will be responsible enough to discipline your kids for the both of you.”� Lily replied absentmindedly as the train halted to a stop.   
“Okay, you first.”� Lily said, making sure that this time when they got off at Piccadilly Station, James was walking in front of her.

James had never realized how many things there were to do and see in Muggle- London. Lily had shown him everything from Harrods Department Store to the River Thames, all the while, acting the part of a tour guide, pointing things out and explaining the history behind certain things when necessary.

“Wow, is there anything we haven’t seen in London today?”� James asked, as he and Lily walked out of the British Museum, just having seen the Rosetta Stone. The sun was beginning to set, but there was still a good hour and a half of daylight left to enjoy.

“Nope, I think I’ve actually shown you everything worth seeing.”� Lily paused for a moment, in thought. “Actually…”� she trailed off.

“There’s more?”� James asked, amazed.

“Just one more place.”� Lily said. “My favorite place in all of London, in fact.”�

“Is it close by?”� James asked.

“Kind of-- London’s not that big when you think about it-- we can take the bus there, come on!”� 

They caught the number ten bus across town and got off at the stop nearest the Kensington Gardens.  
“So where is this place you’re taking me?”� James asked, following Lily toward the park.

“You’ll see. It’s just a ways in through the Kensington Gardens.”� Lily said, leading the way.

They walked in silence, James following Lily through the vast park, wondering if she really knew where she was going. They walked along side a river, which Lily informed him was called ‘The Serpentine’ where a handful of children where feeding ducks and swans, the light from the setting sun catching on the still water. James thought the river was what Lily had wanted to show him, but instead, she walked past it. He watched Lily smile as they reached a clearing up ahead where a bronze statue stood. As they walked toward it James recognized the statue of the boy who refused to grow up, immediately, for it was one of those rare stories that was the same in the muggle world as it was in the magical one.

“Peter Pan.”� James said, lightly, walking over to examine the statue more closely.

Lily nodded. “When I was younger and my mum would bring us here to play, I’d spend hours playing at the foot of this statue. I thought maybe if I stood in the spot where Peter first touched down into London, he’d come and take me away to Neverland like he did with Wendy. Then I grew up and I stopped believing in magic and fairy tales-- until I got my Hogwarts letter, of course-- but even then, I guess I always felt that even though I was growing up, when I’d come back here, just for a moment, I’d stop growing. That just for a moment, I could be a kid again.”�

“You know, the story of Peter Pan is the same here as it is in the magical world.”� James commented.

“Really?”� Lily asked, looking at him.

“Yeah.”� James said. “The first time Sirius really tried running away-- we must have been about seven or so-- I asked him where he was going and he said he was going to live in Neverland with Peter and the Lost Boys.”�

“Why’d he chose that?”� Lily asked. “I mean, why not Hogwarts or to your house, or, I dunno, someplace different?”�

“Because he said that if he ran away to Neverland, he’d never have to listen to his mum or dad again-- because in Neverland, there aren’t any parents. In Neverland, there aren’t any grown-ups.”� James explained.

“Well, except of course for Captain Hook.”� Lily said, smiling and lightening up the otherwise serious conversation.

“Right, how could we forget Captain Hook.”� James laughed. “But don’t you remember? Peter always stopped him in the end.”�

“Yeah, that’s right-- even when he kidnapped Wendy and Tiger Lily.”� Lily said, smiling.

“Thanks for bringing me here-- this is awesome.”� James said.

“You’re welcome,”� Lily said, “But I think it’s time we started heading back-- I expect it’ll be dark by the time we get home.”�

James nodded, and together they walked away from the Peter Pan statue and in the direction of the nearest underground station.

“I’m afraid we’re going to catch the rush especially since we‘re taking a rather popular line.”� Lily said, as they entered the very busy station.  
They stood on the crowded platform and when the train finally arrived, Lily made sure they were close to the front of the line to get on.

“Alright, you first.”� Lily said to James, not wanting any sort of repeat from this morning.

“Wha- oh, come on, Lily! It’s not going to happen again! I’ve learned my lesson about getting on and off the tube!”� James whined.

“Oh, just get in!”� Lily said, pushing him, rather unsuccessfully through the sliding doors.

James gave up arguing and allowed Lily to lead him onto the train.   
When they got on, there was only one seat left and many were already standing, hanging onto poles and overhead rails.

“You take it.”� Lily said, motioning to the vacant seat.

“Now, what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t offer the only seat to a lady?”� James asked. “Not a very good one-- you take it.”�

“James, this has nothing to do with being chivalrous-- I’m telling you for your own good. Standing up on the underground train can be very tricky, you know, especially if you’ve never done it before.”�

“Really, Lily, how hard could it be? Besides, I’m not sitting unless you do.”�

“Fine then,”� Lily rolled her eyes. “Then I guess we’re both standing.”�

James could have sworn he heard Lily mutter something along the lines of ‘stubborn mule’ as she took hold of a nearby pole and couldn’t help but smile at how easily irritated, one, Lily Evans could be. The sliding doors closed and the now familiar woman’s voice said ‘mind the gap’ over the intercom.

“Hold on tight, then.”� Lily said, smiling.  
The train started abruptly, immediately speeding through the underground tunnel ahead. 

“Bloody hell!”� James cursed, losing his balance and accidentally bumping into a tough looking bloke who looked like he would not be at all out of place riding around with the Hell’s Angels motorbike group. 

“Sorry! Lost my footing.”� James muttered apologetically at the man behind him who grunted in acknowledgement.

Lily suppressed a fit of giggles. “You don’t understand how hard I’m trying not to say ‘I told you so’ buuut… I told you so!”�

Lily let go of the pole to clutch her abdomen as she continued laughing quietly, all the while keeping perfect balance while James clutched onto the pole for dear life.

“Show off.”� James muttered.

The underground train made an abrupt stop at the next station and then, it was Lily’s turn to lose her balance, only instead of flailing backward, she toppled forward, right into James as the sliding doors opened and a horde of new passengers squeezed in, pushing Lily, who was already quite close to James, completely up against him.  
It was at this moment that James would have said something like   
‘That’s what you get for showing off-- it’s a little thing I like to call karma.’   
except at the moment, he was distracted by the fact that Lily Evans was currently pressed up against him and oh man, did it feel amazing. 

‘Well, this is awkward.’ Lily thought to herself, trying to maneuver her body so she wasn’t close to James, but it was no use, there were too many people in the compartment to move at all. Lily kept herself occupied looking at the other passengers and out the compartment windows-- The latter not doing much to keep her occupied since all she could really see out of them was the reflection of the passengers inside the train-- anything to keep her from looking at James.  
Finally, after what seemed like the longest underground ride of her life, the compartment door opened and a good portion of people exited.

Lily stepped away from James, muttering a quiet ’sorry’ as the train departed once more. A short silence fell between the two, but soon, the awkward moment passed and they were back to chatting in a friendly manner.

 

“Wow,”� James said, stepping off the trolley and looking around the town in which he now lived. “I never realized how much darker this place is in comparison to the city.”�

“I guess I never really noticed much.”� Lily said shrugging. “I’ve lived here my whole life so I really don’t know anything different.”�

They reached Lily’s front porch and James opened his mouth, presumably to say goodnight, but before he could, Lily spoke instead.  
“Do you want to sit outside for a while? Maybe have some iced tea or something?”�

“Sure.”� James said, immediately.

“Great! I’ll be right back, then.”� Lily said, going inside to fetch the refreshments.

James ran a hand through his hair and noticed, for the first time that the Evans had a suspended swing on their porch; he sat on it, swinging back and forth gently.   
Lily joined him on the swing not five minutes later, handing him a glass of iced tea.

“So where did you live before you moved here?”� Lily asked.

“In Godric’s Hollow-- it’s one of the older wizarding villages.”� James replied.

“Was it nice there?”�

James nodded. “It’s got that quaint old village feeling to it. Not quite as charming as it is here, but still nice. It’s really one of those places where everyone knows everyone’s business since everyone there comes from wizarding families.”�

They talked a bit more about Godric’s Hollow, James, describing the type of people who lived there in more detail and what his old house had looked like. Somewhere down the line, the conversation switched and Lily and James found themselves pointing out the constellations in the sky, which were exceptionally bright tonight.  
“It’s the third star from the left, I’m positive.”� James said matter-of-factly. For some reason, they had begun disputing the position of the star, Alcor, in the big dipper constellation.

“No, James, you’re mixing it up. The third one from the left is Alioth. Alcor is the second from the left.”�

“Are you sure though?”�

“I’m positive!”�

“Really? Because I could have sworn it was the third from the left.”�

“James, give it up, it’s the second from the left unless your suggesting that somehow Alcor and Alioth managed to switch places overnight.”�

“Alright, fine, you win. Second from the left, then.”� 

“It has nothing to do with winning-- I’m just stating a fact.”�

“Okay, you were right, then.”�

“Thank you.”� Lily smiled, pleased with herself. “I love being right.”�

“You’re _always_ right.”� James said, rolling his eyes good naturedly.

“But that doesn’t mean I still can’t enjoy the feeling.”� Lily pointed out. “And I resent that-- I’m not always right.”�

“True. Very true, but you‘re right about 99% of the time”� James answered.

His eyes settled on hers and they locked. Lily smiled at him, a simple act that James blames for driving him to do what he did next.   
Suddenly, James found himself trailing a finger down the side of Lily’s face. He traced from the tip of her eyebrow and down her cheek, over it’s smooth, curvy contour and down across her chin, all the while never breaking her gaze.  
A tingling path was left across her skin, trailing behind his tracing fingertip. Lily wasn’t sure what he was doing-- wasn’t sure what she should be doing. All she knew was that at the moment, she was completely mesmerized by James’ actions.

“You’ve still got one wish left.”� Lily said, voicing the first thing that came to her mind. The sound of her own voice surprised her, coming out softer than she was expecting, like a cross between talking normally and a whisper.

“I know,”� James said just as softly, his fingertip still making its way across the skin of her face, ever so often, brushing near her hairline.

“Do, you, um,”�   
James was distracting her, making it hard for her to think of which words to string together in her head to form a sentence, but that didn’t necessarily mean Lily wished he’d stop what he was doing.- quite the contrary, actually. At this moment, Lily realized she didn’t care and the last thing she wanted James to do was to stop.

“Do I what?”� James asked, moving to play with a loose, misplaced curl of her hair near the curve of her neck.

“have any idea what you’d like your last wish to be?”� Lily finally got out.

James was silent for a moment as he thought, though he never stopped playing with the strand of hair in his hand.   
“Yes.”� he said, finally.

“What is it then?”� Lily asked as she watched him play with the piece of her hair. “What’s the last thing you want for your birthday, James?”�

“I’m,”� James paused as if trying to figure out exactly how to put in words what he was thinking. “I’m not sure I want to tell you.”�

“Why not?”� Lily asked. “Why can’t you tell me what you want?”�

“Because what I want I’d like to be voluntarily-- not invoked by a silly wish. I‘d rather have it be real.”� James said.

There was a gap of silence as Lily let James’ words sink in. his eyes, if at all possible, seemed to have gotten darker because they were the richest shade of hazel Lily had ever seen them.

“I’m not sure if I know what you want,”� Lily said finally. She paused before continuing with the thought that had been running through her mind “But don’t think realism would be a problem.”�

“But how do you know,”� James asked, moving closer. “if you don’t know what it is, Lily?”� her name fell from his lips gracefully, almost like a low undertone, as James finally dropped the curl he had been playing with.

She licked her lips, drawing attention to her mouth and James’ eyes dropped to her rosy lips; never had he felt the need to be closer to her more than he did at this moment. And tossing all rational thought, all the mixed feelings of possible rejection and the possibility of losing the friendship he had built with her over the short weeks he’d lived next door, James leaned in closer, unable to fight the almost magnetic pull that was drawing him toward her.

If Lily had been thinking at all rationally, she would have put a stop to this before it had even started but she wasn’t thinking rationally, and the funny thing was, she realized that she really didn’t care. Between thinking rationally and finding out what would happen if James kept moving closer, rationality, she thought, could go jump off the astronomy tower at Hogwarts, for all she cared.

James was physically closer than he had ever been to Lily and he was completely entranced by the scent of her. By her breath, which he could feel on his face, and by the body heat she was radiating. He was close, maybe two inches away, and even so, James had never wanted anything more than to close the gap between them…

_CRACK!_

a heavy weight between both of them on the porch swing and the sudden noise, startled both Lily and James into pulling apart. Lily yelped and the next thing she knew, the Porch swing had broken off it’s hinges, sending them falling to the floor, a heavy weight settling in the pit of her stomach. It took Lily a moment to realize that the heavy weight in the pit of her stomach was not mentally induced, but there because something, or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that someone had landed on top of her.

James groaned loudly.

“Hiya, Prongs!”� came a cheery and all too familiar voice to Lily’s right.

“Sirius Black,”� Liliy said, wheezing slightly. “If you don’t get off my stomach right now, I’ll surely die from suffocation-- you’re not exactly a feather, you know.”�

“Do mine ears deceive me, or are those the dulcet tones of the lovely Lily Evans that I’m hearing?”� Sirius said, getting up and offering a hand to Lily who was still sprawled on the deck.

Lily took it gratefully, standing and dusting herself off with the palms of her hands.

“What are you doing here, Black?”� Lily asked.

“I could ask you the same question.”� Sirius replied.

“I live here.”� Lily said, stretching gingerly to make sure she didn’t have any broken bones.

“No bloody way! You live here?!”� Sirius said, a slightly mad grin plastered on his face and pointing to the spot where he was standing.

“Well, no, I don’t exactly live on this porch,”� Lily said, sardonically “But yes, this is my house.”�

“Prongs, buddy, why didn’t you tell me we moved in next door to Lily?”� Sirius asked, for the first time, turning to look at his best friend.

“Heh, must have slipped my mind.”� James laughed nervously. “It’s great to see you, Padfoot, but when’d you get your apparating license?”�

“Two weeks ago-- Andromeda took me-- but this is the first time I’ve ever really apparated a long distance.”� Sirius beamed.

“Looks like you’re still a bit rusty.”� Lily scoffed in a muttered tone.

“Oh right, Andromeda! What happened there, mate? I thought you were staying with her and Ted for the rest of the summer.”� James said, ignoring Lily’s remark.

“Change of plans.”� Sirius shrugged. “I love Andy, you know I do, but there’s not much to do over there. I got bored so I decided to come back and hang out with you for the remainder.”�

“ _Soooo_ , what were you doing before I graced you with my presence? Did I miss anything good?”� Sirius asked.

“Nothing.”� Lily and James said, a little too quickly in perfect unison.

Sirius looked back and forth from Lily to James, another smile spreading across his lips.  
“Riiiight.”�

Lily fought a blush that was itching to spread across her cheeks.

“Yes, well, it’s getting late and I don’t want to wake up my parents.”� Lily shifted uncomfortably. “That is of course, if they already weren’t awoken by your aparating onto and breaking my porch swing.”� 

“Oh yeah, sorry about that!”� Sirius said, pulling out his wand. “ _Reparo!_ There, that’s better.”� 

A flash of light shot out of Sirius’ wand and the bench immediately repaired itself.

“Right, well, I’m off to bed,”� Lily said. “Nice to see you, Sirius. Bye James.”�

“Hey.”� James called out to Lily before she disappeared into her house. “Will we see you tomorrow?”�

“Yeah, swing by the house if you want-- we’re doing some more wedding planning stuff but I’m sure I can find some way to keep you clowns entertained.”� Lily smiled.

“Sounds good.”� James replied, grinning.

“Alright, see you tomorrow, then.”� Lily said, walking into her house and closing the door behind her.

Sirius paused, waiting to make sure Lily not in hearing distance before facing his best friend.

“What was that all about?”� Sirius asked, mischievously.

“What do you mean?”� James looked at his friend questioningly as they began to walk home.

“Well, you two were looking pretty friendly just then.”�

“Yeah, that’s because we’re kind of friends now, Sirius.”�

“Not just then,”� Sirius said, “You were looking pretty cozy before I apparated between you, too!”�

“You were spying on us?”� James burst out.

“From your kitchen window,”� Sirius pointed to the new Potter house just next door. “how else would I have had such good aim?”�

“Oh my bloody-- Padfoot, I can’t believe you, I was this close!”� James said, holding up his thumb and pointer finger so they were but millimeters apart from each other.

“This close to wha-- oh.”� Sirius ended lamely, finally realizing why James was so ruffled. “Man, really? Wow, I’m sorry, mate.”�

“It’s okay, you didn’t know.”� James said, hollowly.

“Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be yet, you know?”� Sirius added, trying to make things better.

“Yeah, I guess...but Padfoot?" 

“Yeah, Prongs?”� Sirius replied, looking sideways at his best friend and catching his eye.

“Honestly, you’ve got some of the worst timing in the world.”� James said, grinning.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter, knowing everything was alright between them as they entered the Potter house and turned in for the night.

Sirius wondering what adventures in this new town awaited him and James, wondering what would have happened if Sirius had decided to apparate between them just a few moments later.


	10. Unexpected Excitement

Okay, so it's slightly late but better late than never, right?-- Enjoy! 

 

**Chapter 10:** **Unexpected Excitement**

 

 

The next morning, Sirius was up with the sun, never having been one to sleep in- that was if anything, more in James’ nature.

He tossed over in his bed, turning away from the window and tried falling back asleep but it just didn’t work. _‘Why keep sleeping,’_ Sirius thought to himself, _‘ When the sun’s out and there’s a whole new town to explore?’_

Thuroughly convinced staying in bed would be a waste, Sirius threw back the covers, dressed quickly, and tiptoed down the hall until he stood in front of James’ bedroom. Cracking the door open just enough to get a decent look inside, Sirius peeked in, to find James sprawled on his bed, mouth slightly parted and still obviously deep in sleep.

It would be a shame, Sirius thought, mischievously, for James to waste such a beautiful morning sleeping. After all, what kind of friend would he be if he let James do so?

Making up his mind, Sirius threw open the door and making sure to get a running start, pounced atop James’ bed landing expertly at his feet and screamed, “Wake _UP!_ Sleepy head!”

James shot up, instantaneously, falling to the floor with a loud thump and stifling a yelp, tangled in heaps of blankets and sheets.

“Padfoot?” James asked, slightly breathless.

“Yes,” Sirius asked, perched comfortably atop the bed.

“Could you explain to me precisely why you decided to wake me up at--” James picked up the alarm clock which had fallen off his bedside table. “5:30 in the MORNING?! You woke me up at 5:30 in the _MORNING?!”_

Sirius blinked at James’ hysteric explanation.

“James, it’s 9:30, not 5:30, Merlin’s beard, put your glasses on, you really are blind without them” Sirius handed James his glasses and James took them. Wiping them off on his sheet before pushing them up the bridge of his nose and looking at the alarm clock clearly this time.

Confirming it really was 9:30, James tossed the clock onto the bedside table once more before muttering as he rubbed his eyes behind his glasses.

**“** Beg pardon?” Sirius asked, cupping one hand to his ear as James grumbled something incoherently at him.

“Never mind.” James said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Alright, get up and get dressed, you lazy bugger-- we’re wasting away a perfectly good day in here!” Sirius said.

“Why’dya have to be so bloody energetic and, and, _awake_ in the mornings, Padfoot?” James asked, standing up slowly from the floor and stretching as he waked over to get some clothes out from his dresser drawers.

“Because, if we all acted as though we were grumpy old men in the mornings like you do, Prongs, there’d be no happiness in the world.” Sirius replied smartly.

James threw a rolled up sock at Sirius’ head and missed, narrowly sideswiping the lamp on his desk.

Sirius let out a chuckle. “Seriously, Prongs, they made you chaser _and_ Captain with that horrific aim? Wait till I tell everyone at school you missed a target barely ten feet away.”

James picked up the next object closest to him-- a shoe.

“I didn’t have to miss, you know-- be assured I definitely _wont_ miss the second time around, Padfoot.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing, Prongs, god.” Sirius said, cracking, one hand on the doorknob. “See you downstairs, yeah?” 

And with that, Sirius left the room, leaving James to get dressed in peace.

James smiled to himself as he let the shoe in his had drop to the floor with a thump. James would have ever thrown his shoe at Sirius’ head with the actual intentions of hitting him-- at least not just for having woken him up a tad earlier than he would have liked-- and Sirius knew it, too. He was just threatening him-- teasing, if you will, just as Sirius had been teasing him earlier. That, James thought, as he got dressed, was part of the reason they had such a strong friendship. They always knew when the other was joking, just as they always knew when it was time to stop and take the other seriously.

Walking down to the kitchen, James breathed deeply, enjoying the scent that immediately filled his nostrils. _Mmm, breakfast._

James walked into the small room, to find plates full of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and a large stack of fluffy pancakes on the oblong kitchen table where Sirius was already seated.

“Good morning, darling.” Moira Potter said, bringing a small pitcher of maple syrup over to the table and proceeding to prepare a decently served plate for Sirius.

“Come over here and sit next to Sirius and have some breakfast.”

“That’s enough food, Moira, really.” Sirius interjected.

“Oh, pish-posh! You’re a growing boy who needs to be well nourished,” Moira chided, stacking yet another pancake on his plate. “and if I don’t take care of you, who will? Syrup?” 

“Yes, please!” Sirius said, sounding much more like a child than the seventeen year old he was.

James knew Sirius loved being babied by his mum and truthfully, Moira loved babying him just as she did James, having always thought of Sirius as more of a second son than James’ friend, especially so now that he’d run away from the Blacks. James could even remember a time when Moira had told Sirius he could call her ‘mum’ if he wanted to, but Sirius still hadn’t taken her up on that offer, feeling as though calling Moira ‘mum’ would be stepping over some invisible boundaries.

Whatever Sirius decided in the end however, James didn’t mind in the slightest-- he was not the jealous type when it came to his mother, knowing Moira had enough love and space in her heart to love them both.

“How come you never make breakfast for me?” James pouted jokingly.

“Oh James! I do so make breakfast for you.” his mum said, whacking him lightly with the apron she had just removed and setting a readied plate in front of him.

As Moira walked away to clean up the kitchen, Sirius shook his head.

“Nope, I reckon it’s cuz your mum likes me better than you.”

“you know what? I’m beginning to think after all those years of you professing that little fact, you might actually be right, Sirius.” James commented.

“Oh nonsense!” Moira said, having heard their conversation.

She kissed the tops of both their heads, kneeling down slightly so she was between the two. “You know I love you boys-- the both of you.”

James and Sirius smiled at each other before tucking into a hearty and delicious breakfast.

\---

“So what are we doing today? Something exciting? Dangerous? Adventurous?” Sirius raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“Haven’t you had enough adventure gallivanting around Oxfordshire for the first part of the summer?” 

“Ha! The most adventure I had was learning how to change Nymphadora’s diapers-- without magic!-- but then again, I guess that was a dangerous adventure within itself.” Sirius laughed. “besides, if you’re Sirius Black, there’s no such thing as too much adventure.”

James begged to differ, but decided against it and instead just smiled lightly as he tugged on his shoes as Sirius watched him, his head cocked to one side, looking positively curious.

“We’re going to visit Evans today aren’t we?”

“If by Evans you mean ‘Lily’ than, yes, we are.” 

“Since when do you two not use surnames, anyway?” Sirius asked curiously.

“Oh, um, dunno.” James thought. “I guess since that first day when her dad offered to have Lily show me around town and introduce me around.”

“And you accepted? You sly, sly stag!” Sirius replied scandalously.

“No, actually, you can credit my dad for that one as he accepted the invitation without even consulting me first. But in dad’s defense, hehad no idea what he was really agreeing to-- neither did Jeff for that matter, when he offered on Lily’s behalf.”

“Jeff?” Sirius asked.

“Lily’s dad-- Jeff Evans.”

“Ah, calling the in-laws by their first names, eh?”

“Would you stop speaking in that scandalous undertone of yours? And they’re not my in-laws,” ‘ _yet’_ , James thought in his head. “Besides, it’s no big deal, I’m sure they’ll let you call them by their first names, too.”

“So, I know you want to hang out with Lily today and really, I don’t mind spending time with her,” Sirius started, changing the subject slightly. “But, planning a wedding? Really, how exciting can that really be? Can’t we just, _steal_ her away for a couple of hours and go do something in town?”

James shook his head almost instantaneously, in negation. “I already tried, but she can’t-- she’s maid of honor and for some reason that means she’s got to tag along to all wedding related activities.”

“Maid of honor? It all makes sense now-- man, Lily and her sister must be pretty close for her to be maid of honor.”

“It’s quite the opposite actually, and from what I understand, Petunia’s quite a piece of work.”

“Wait,Petunia? Lily’s sister’s name is _Petunia?_ Talk about a fondness for flowers.” Sirius grinned.

“Yeah, I noticed too.” James said. “Come on, we’re wasting time here, let’s see what’s going on next door.”

“Pfft, and who’s fault is that, Mr. Wake-me-up-before-the-sun-has-risen-half-way-into-the-sky-and-I’m-liable-to-bite-your-head-off-Potter, hmm?” Sirius asked, bounding down the stairs behind his best friend.

“Padfoot, that barely makes any sense,” James said, pulling the front door open.

“Doesn’t have to, you just need to get the gist of it, which, you obviously did-- MOI-RA! JAMES AND I ARE GOING NEXT DOOR TO VISIT YOUR FUTURE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW, BE BACK-- _Oof!_ ” 

James elbowed Sirius in the stomach, cutting him off.

“Have you gone _bonkers?!_ What’d you do that for?” James asked, looking at Sirius as though he’d suddenly grown an extra head.

“Why the hell not? It’s not as if she doesn’t know you fancy the knickers off of her-- EVERYONE knows.” Sirius pointed out, now having taken the lead.

“Yeah, but now you’ve gone and announced it to the whole _street_!” James said, bounding after him, his hands raised in a mix between frustration and embarrassment.

“Oh, they’d have found out eventually, I just possibly sped up the process.”

James would have gladly harped on the subject a while longer but no sooner had Sirius rung the doorbell did it open to reveal Lily’s father, Jeff.

“James! This is a nice surprise. Oh, and I see you’ve brought a friend, too.” Jeff said, greeting them.

“Yes, this is my best friend, Sirius Black-- he’s more of a surrogate brother than anything else though, he lives with us, you see.”

“Lovely,” Jeff Evans said, gripping the hand Sirius had offered him firmly.

“It’s nice to meet you, Sir.”

“Please, Sirius, call me Jeff. And do you, um. Go to,” Jeff Evans trailed off, gesturing with his outstretched hand.

“Attend Hogwarts?” Jeff nodded at Sirius’ response. “Yes, I’m in James and Lily’s year too.”

“Fascinating.” Jeff replied genuinely. “So, I take it you two have gotten yourselves roped inot wedding planning today as well, eh?”

“More or less.” Sirius said.

“Well, let me give you boys a bit of friendly advice, you know, just between us blokes-- _run._ run while you still can.”

“Oh, Jeff, stop scaring the poor boys!” came a fourth, female voice from behind Jeff Evans. “Hi Sirius, I’m Laurie, Lily’s mum.” Laurie Evans said, shaking Sirius’ hand briefly. “James, Lily’s out back if you’re looking for her-- she mentioned you might be stopping by-- just make yourselves at home, dears and let me know if you need anything, alright?” Laurie smiled, kindly. “And _you!_ ” She said, rounding on her husband. “Vernon’s dad is looking for you-- says you ran off before he could finish discussing something about drill heads--”

“Aww, Laur, do I _have_ to?” Jeff whined. “You have no idea how utterly _boring_ that man is--”

“Yes you most certainly do! It’s important for you to--”

“ _Build a good relationship with the Dursleys for the sake of our daugher_ Yes, I know, dear.” Jeff said, finishing Laurie’s speech for her.

“Alright, now be a good dad and go back and talk with Mr. Dursley.”

Jeff groaned, rolling his eyes as he walked back toward the yard, but James distinctly saw Jeff wink at the both of them on his way back to the living room.

“Nice family,” Sirius remarked as both Evans left the room, “So, which way to the apple of your eye, Prongs?” 

James just rolled his eyes at a smiling Sirius as he lead the way to the backyard in search of one, Lily Evans. 

…

 

Lily watched, from a few feet away as Mrs. Dursley argued with yet another wedding planner-- she had gone through three already, this was number four and by the looks of it, she wasn’t going to last much longer. At least Wedding Planner nuber four didn’t look like a cry-er-- number two had been a cry-er, Lily thought, remembering Wedding Planner Number Two’s reaction to having been fired.

If being nitpicky was an Olympic sport, Mrs. Dursley would surely take the gold but in Lily’s eyes, that was not exactly a good thing, especially since a) it wasn’t particularly interesting to watch, and b) the wedding was in three weeks time-- now was not the time to be nitpicky.

Petunia had run off with Vernon somewhere-- the cow, this was her wedding and yet, Lily was the one who was having the misfortune of spending most of the time in the company of Barbara and Marge Dursley as she planned out this little shindig. It was blasphemy. Complete and utter blasphemy especially since Barbara never asked for her input anyway nor did she really _want_ her there.

Four hours of utter boredom now had Lily contemplating the thought of hanging herself off a nearby post with the yards and yards of tulle strewn around the yard (she would never go through with it, of course,-- for what? To give Petunia and Mrs. Dursley the satisfaction of having caused her to suicidal tendancies? I think not!) when she spotted two familiar figures walking toward her.

Not even bothering to excuse herself, if she was lucky, Mrs. Dursley would never even notice she was gone, Lily hurriedly walked toward the two boys.

“James, Sirius, thank _god._ ”

“Boring day, I take it?” James asked, smiling.

“Nonsense, Prongs, couldn’t you see she was having _barrels_ of _fun_ before we showed up?” Sirius said sardonically.

Lily grinned. “god, that woman is so boring, you guys came just in time, I don’t think I could have taken another second of her wedding bantering.” she said, leading them over to sit near a rather large tree.

“And James here has informed me that you’re not allowed to leave the premises, either.” Lily nodded and scrunched up her nose in distaste. “The curse of being the Maid of Honor.”

“So I’ve also heard-- I feel your pain as I’ve been in your position numerous times.” 

Sirius noticed Lily’s look of curiosity, taking it as a sign to elaborate. “Three words: Big, Pure-blood family.” Sirius said, ticking off the words with his fingers, “And I guess we should add the word ‘traditional’ somewhere in there as well, which basically means I’ve been an usher or ring bearer for as long as I can remember every time one of my idiotic cousins has married another of my distant-enough-so-it’s-not-technically-seen-as-incest cousins.”

“Hmm…I’ll count my blessings I come from a small family, then.” Lily commented.

“And I’ll count mine that my parents don’t exactly follow the norm when it comes to being from old pureblood families.” James said.

“You mean you don’t have to put up with all this wedding business like Sirius even if you are from a pureblood family?” Lily asked James curiously.

“My parents don’t believe in following pureblood traditions.” James said, smiling warmly.

“And I love them dearly for that, I must say.” Sirius added. “God, if I’d have been made to sit at that bastard, Malfoy’s wedding or my cow of a cousin’s Bellatrix’s, I’d have probably shot myself in the foot.”

Lily giggled at Sirius’ bluntness. “Wait, Bellatrix is getting married? Bellatrix Black?-”

“How many Bellatrixes do you know who also happen to be related to me, Lily?” Sirius teased.

“No, I know, I mean, but-- she’s in our year. She hasn’t even graduated from Hogwarts and she’s getting married?” Lily asked.

“Well, not exactly at this moment, no,” Sirius explained. “But she’s been promised to Rodolphus Lestrange so I expect he won’t waste much time after she graduates before marrying her.-- arranged marriages are all the rage in pureblood wizard families, you see-- it’s really the only way they can make sure they continue the elite pureblood line.” Sirius explained in a slightly sardonic voice.

“Again, really happy my parents don’t believe in tradition.” James said, leaning against the tree trunk. 

“Told you I was lucky to get out when I did.” Sirius smiled as he rolled his eyes good naturedly.

Forty-five minutes later found the group of three splayed out on the grassy ground, throwing out ideas which could possibly be used for entertainment, although, in Lily’s opinion, the ideas were steadily becoming sillier rather than being of any use at all.

“We could play Wizard’s chess.” Sirius tossed out, picking at a piece of grass.

“Yeah, because I randomly carry around a wizard chess set in my pocket.” James said sardonically.

“Really? Me too!” Sirius replied excitedly.

“Please, you can’t be serious.” Lily said, propping herself up by her elbow.

“Oh, but I am, my dear.” Sirius said, beginning to extract an array of items from his pockets and laying them on the ground, “I know I’ve got it in here somewhere-- ah! Found it!” he said, revealing a small rectangular box. He tapped the box with his wand muttering the word ‘Engorgio.‘ The box grew before their eyes and when it stopped, Sirius opened it to reveal a complete, set up to play, Wizard’s chess set.

Sirius looked from Lily to James expectantly. “Well?”

“I’m black.” James said, turning the board so the black pieces were on his side and the whites were facing Sirius. 

“Fine, I play winners, then.” Lily said, moving so she was laying on her stomach between the two boys.

****

“Pawn to D5” Sirius said, his chess piece moving to the spot he commanded.

“So he’s really got the Dementors on his side, then?” James asked, continuing the conversation, which had somewhere down the line moved to Voldemort and his recent attacks, as he thought of his next move.

“That’s what I’ve read in the papers.” Sirius said, looking at the chessboard and trying to predict James’ next move.

“Dementors?” Lily asked curiously.

James nodded, “Knight to H3-- you’ve never heard of Dementors?” he asked, turning to look at Lily.

Lily shook her head. “What are they?”

“They’re these dark creatures that kind of float about in black cloaks-- no one really knows what they look like under there, unless of course, they catch a glimpse right before they’re about to be kissed.” James explained.

“Kissed?” Lily asked.

“Dementors feed off of other people’s happy thoughts for the most part, but a Dementor also has the capability of sucking out one’s soul-- that’s what a ‘Dementor’s Kiss’ is, the act of a Dementor sucking the soul out of a person.”

“Oh.” Lily replied lamely.

“Your turn, James.” Sirius said, having moved his piece.

“Don’t worry, though.” James added before looking down at the chessboard, noticing the look on Lily’s face after he explained what a Dementor was and what they did. “ all the known Dementors guard the wizard prison, Azkaban and that’s eons away from here--”

James was cut off by the sound of an approaching figure and Lily turned in the direction of the noise just in time to see her sister walking toward them looking displeased.

“There you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you-- next time you wander off, please be courteous enough to tell someone where you’re going so others don’t have to spend forever and a day locating you.” Petunia said, positively miffed.

“Well, if you knew anything about being courteous or polite for that matter, you’d know it’s rude to launch into conversation and completely ignore everyone else around you.” Lily snapped, standing up.

Petunia didn’t say anything but stood there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot. Clearly, Lily thought, her sister was not going to be the one to introduce or acknowledge Sirius’ or James’ presence without being introduced first and as Petunia had already met James and Lily didn’t want to come off as rude, she begrudgingly held her tongue and made to introduce Sirius to her sister.

“Petunia, this is my friend--” 

“Sirius Black.” Sirius said, cutting her off and standing as well. He grabbed Petunia’s hand (which just so happened to be her left) intending to kiss it as a proper gentleman would when being introduced to a lady, “Simply enchanted to meet--woah!” Sirius said, cutting himself off as he noticed the rather large diamond perched atop Petunia’s ring finger. “Would you look at the size of that thing? Mother of Merlin, that rivals Narcissa’s ring and mind you, it’s rumored that ole’ Lucius paid over a thousand galleons for hers…”

By this time, Petunia was feeling rather uncomfortable but still hadn’t pulled her hand away from Sirius who was still closely examining the ring on her finger.

“Alright, Petunia?” A fifth almost grunt of a voice asked as yet a fifth person joined them.

Petunia looked up to see Vernon Dursley trudging toward them and finally pulled her hand out of Sirius’ before nodding in answer to Vernon’s question.

“Vernon Dursley, I see you’ve met my fiancée.” Vernon said, suspiciously outstretching his hand to Sirius.

“Yes I have,” Sirius said, shaking it firmly. “Sirius Black-- I’m a friend of Lily’s from school, and well, I dunno if you’ve met James yet or not but we live just next door.”

James and Vernon shook hands as well and Lily was finding it very odd that Petunia had not muttered a single insult as of yet.

“Oy, pea brain, we’re starting to collect dust down here, are you going to make a move or what?” came a tiny voice from down below.

“Oh right, sorry guys!” Sirius exclaimed, crouching down to examine the chess board.

Petunia and Lily shared looks of mortification and Vernon looked at Sirius as if he were utterly insane, having just talked to a chessboard which seemed to have not only talked back to him but insulted him in the process.

“I’ve never seen a chess set like that before,” Vernon said suspiciously, trying to hide the amazement when the piece Sirius had commanded moved to the designated spot across the board.

“Voice activated too? But where do you put the batteries?” Vernon wondered as he picked up a spare pawn and turned it this way and that, trying to figure out what was making them move.

“Batteries?” Sirius asked perplexed, “We don’t use batteries-- it’s all done by magi--”

“He means it’s all done by magnetism!” Lily said cutting Sirius off, knowing if they brought magic up in any conversation with Vernon, Petunia would never let her live it down.

“I’ve never seen magnets do that.” Vernon said superiorly.

“Well, you see, it’s this new technology they’re testing out in Japan-- experimenting with lots of technological based things, Japan is.” Lily lied, cringing at how discontinuing her explanation sounded.

Vernon said nothing but grunted once more and continued examining the piece in his hand.

Petunia smiled sweetly and pulled Lily forcefully to her side.

“Ouch! You wench, what’d you do that for?” Lily whispered, rubbing her arm where Petunia’s fingers had pinched her.

“Oh, stuff it, you baby-- can’t you get your freak friends out of here before Vernon becomes even more suspicious?” Petunia whispered back.

“What? Scared your he’ll find out the truth about me?”

“You wouldn’t dare-- it’d jeopardize my whole wedding,” Petunia said fearfully.

“Well then why don’t you two leave before I suddenly let something _slip_ accidentally.” Lily said, throwing her sister a smile sweet enough to rival hers.

“Prat.”

“Cow.” 

“Witch.”

“Oh very good, Petty, dear. Tell me, when are you going to learn that that’s not exactly an insult since technically speaking I _am_ a witch?” Lily asked.

“Hey, what’s this thing?”

Lily turned around just in time to see Vernon bend down to pick up a slivery bracelet which she was almost positive Sirius had discarded from his pocket while in search of the chess set.

“No, wait! Don’t touch--” Sirius began, but Vernon, being somewhat dense, picked it up anyway and almost immediately, the silver bracelet stretched, wrapping itself around his arm, emitting an orange glow, and in the blink of an eye, Vernon had transformed into an indescribable creature and Petunia let out an ear piercing shriek.

“Padfoot!” James said, abruptly, watching the affect the bracelet had on Vernon.

“I told that prat not to touch it!” Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

“Sirius! What is that thing?” Lily said mortified as she watched Vernon switch forms roughly every ten seconds, each shape he took on stranger than the next.

“ I dunno! I got it at Zonko’s-- it’s still in the testing stage though!” Sirius exclaimed getting slightly flustered.

“Well, can you make it stop at least?” Lily asked, looking at Vernon who was still transforming.

Sirius didn’t answer Lily’s question, instead watched the boy in front of him transform again and again.

“Sirius!” Lily exclaimed.

“What?!” Sirius asked, snapping out of his daze.

“I said, can you make it stop?”

“I don’t know, Lily! The guy at the counter never explained how!”

Lily rolled her eyes and whirred back around just in time to catch Vernon transform again, the feeling of panic growing heavier in her stomach but willing herself to think. 

“The bracelet!” She cried, rounding on Sirius and James. “We have to get it off-- if he started transforming when it wrapped around his arm, then he’ll have to return to his normal state if we take it off.”

Sirius nodded in agreement and James lunged for the arm on which the silver bracelet was coiled. He tugged once, twice, and on the third tug, the orange glow blew out and the bracelet slipped off, dropping to the ground.

Vernon transformed once more, this time back into his normal body, his breath came out in short gasps as he touched his face and patted down the rest of his body to make sure he truly was back to his normal state.

“I- you- who are-- _what_ in the bloody hell _are_ you people?!” Vernon finally sputtered out.

“Vernon, please, calm down dear, I can explain,” Petunia chided, trying to get his attention as she clung to one of his beefy arms. “My sister-- Lily-- she’s, she’s different! She doesn’t go to Loretto like I’ve told you and neither do her friends, here. They.-- _She_ , goes to a special school because she’s, well, she’s a witch!” Petunia blurted out.

Lily stood there, mouth open and utterly shocked that Petunia had revealed what was arguably their family’s most guarded secret to her future husband in such a way but had no time to act surprised before Vernon rounded at Petunia, as if the words she had spoken had finally sunken in.

“What the devil are you talking about, Petunia? There is _no_ such thing as magic and witches certainly DO NOT exist,” he stated matter-of-factly, his voice dripping if possible with even more anger. “now, are you going to tell me the truth about your family and explain to me why you’re _still_ obviously lying about your freak of a sister--?”

“Don’t you _dare_ call Lily a-- APOLOGIZE TO HER _THIS INSTANT!!_ ” James roared, positively outraged, now having whipped out his wand, pointing it threateningly at Vernon.

Vernon winced slightly at James’ uproar, eyes squinted as if he were expecting James to sock him one. Vernon opened his eyes when he didn’t feel the impact of James’ fist connecting with the side of his face-- an act he was most positive would occur-- and chuckled scathingly at the site of an obviously furious James pointing his wand at him, looking threateningly at him.

“Do you honestly think I’m that thick? You really expect me to be afraid of that wimpy-- no, _pathetic_ looking stick of yours?”

“You should be.” James replied in a low almost whispering tone, hearing Lily’s plea of _“James, don’t.”_ but choosing to ignore it.

Vernon laughed coldly.

“If that’s the best you can do, then I think it’s _you,_ Potter, did you say it was? That should be scared--” Vernon said, making to grab James’ wand away from him. 

But the moment Vernon made contact with James’ wand, an electric shock like feeling pulsated through his body, starting at his hand, and suddenly, Vernon Dursley was thrown back, landing with a thud on the ground, his body going completely rigid as if he had suddenly been frozen.

Petunia shrieked loudly, rushing to his side immediately.

“James!-- You _stunned_ him! How could you?” Lily bellowed, hurryi8ng over to Vernon and Petunia, her wand now out as well.

“I didn’t mean to,” James began weakly, hastily walking behind Lily toward the couple on the ground, Sirius hot on his heels. “he was going to snap my wand!-- I panicked!” 

“Petunia, I’m sorry, here let me, I can fix it.” Lily said, putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder, but as soon as Petunia got sight of Lily’s wand, she let out yet another shriek, this time flinging her body over her fiancée’s, trying desperately to shield him.

“Don’t you _dare_ point that thing at him!” Petunia growled.

“Petunia, _please!_ ” Lily screamed. “You have to let me perform the counter curse or--”

“Don’t you think,” Petunia said quietly, cutting her sister off. “that you and your _freak_ friends have done enough?”

“Petunia, listen to me.” Lily said, grabbing her sister by the arm and whirling her around, forcing her to look her in the eye. “It’s no use, he won’t get out of that state unless you let me perform the counter curse, so I’m going to ask you once more.” Lily said calmly. “Can you _please_ , move aside so I can fix him?”

Petunia said nothing, but grudgingly did as Lily asked and Lily could see the fear in her sister’s eyes as she pointed her wand at Vernon Dursley and muttered the counter curse.

The spell hit him square in the chest with a flash of light and suddenly, Vernon was gasping for air once more as he shakily got to his feet.

“Oh, _Vernon!_ ” Petunia cried, flinging herself upon him once more.

Vernon patted Petunia awkwardly in what he assumed was a comforting manner, still obviously shaken up from having been stunned.

Lily took a step toward them with the intentions of making sure both of them were alright, when Vernon suddenly lashed out once more.

“ _YOU!_ You stay _away_ from us!”

“I- I’m not going to hurt you, I promise,” Lily said, pocketing her wand and looking from her sister to Vernon. “I just wanted to make sure you were both okay.” she said, taking another step, which, Vernon must have felt was one step too close for just as Lily moved that step closer, he pushed her forcefully back with his forearm, saying: “I said, stay _away!”_ as he did so.

Lily stumbled back in shock, tumbling into James who steadied her.

James didn’t bother letting go after he caught her, instead opting to hold Lily almost protectively, with Sirius standing beside them to his right, looking just as protective and angry.

“If you _ever_ ,” James began dangerously, looking directly into Vernon’s icy eyes. “so much as _think_ about laying a finger on Lily again, I swear to you that getting stunned will be the least of your worries.”

“And that, goes for me too.” Sirius added, glaring at Vernon as well.

“Y-you’re _mad_! All of you!” Vernon sputtered, his voice quivering with fear as he backed away slowly. “You deserve to be locked up in the loony bin!-- that’s where you belong! In the loony bin along with all the other _freaks!_ ”

And with that, Vernon Dursley took off running as fast as his legs could carry him in the opposite direction.

“You _bitch_!” Petunia swore, staring murderously at Lily. “You and your _abnormality_ always ruin _EVERYTHING_! Why can’t you just go away and leave us alone!”

Petunia’s words pierced through Lily like shards of glass and as the last words of her rant rang through her ears, Lily watched as her sister spun on her heel and ran after Vernon. 

When Petunia’s cries of _“Vernon! Wait! Please!”_ were but a faint calling, James finally looked at Lily, who was still in his grasp.

“Lily, are you alright?” He asked softly. But before James could even get the question out, Lily pulled free of his grip forcefully as she turned to look at him, giving him a look of rage which he knew all too well. But this time, her look of rage was accompanied by yet another emotion, one which James would classify as disappointment.

“How many times am I going to have to tell you that you don’t have to curse every single person who insults me?! I can take care of _myself--_ I’m not _weak_ , you know!” Lily said, pausing as she shut her eyes tightly as if willing some of her anger to go away. When she opened them once more, she stared icily, straight into James’ hazel eyes before she spoke again, her voice steadily rising with each word. “I don’t _need_ a knight in shining armor, James, so _STOP_ TRYING TO BE MINE!”

Finishing her speech, Lily too, spun on her heel and ran back in the direction of her house, taking care to ram into James’ shoulder forcefully as she did so.

James watched her go, slightly shocked, the familiar feeling of sadness washing over him that usually went along with knowing he had done yet something else to upset Lily Evans. He stayed silent, rooted on the spot he had stood when Lily had told him off until Sirius’ words broke him out of his silent thoughts.

“Well, that went well.” Sirius commented dryly. “You were right, mate, I guess wedding planning isn’t so dull after all.”

James smiled weakly at Sirius’ feeble attempt to lighten the mood and Sirius, being the good friend he was, clapped a hand on James’ shoulder and waited until he was finally ready to trudge back home.


	11. Apologizing Is Only Ever Easy In Theory

** Chapter 11: Apologizing is Only Ever Easy in Theory  **

Head rested back against the couch, James tossed the stuffed Quaffle up in the air and caught it with ease, an activity he had been at for over three hours. He sighed again for what seemed like the umpteenth time, causing Sirius to peer over at him from above the wizarding magazine he was leafing through. Sirius studied his friend for a moment before raising the magazine and once more absorbing himself in the article he was reading.

James restlessly allowed the quaffle to fall and watched it roll off the couch and onto the floor before letting out yet another exasperated sigh.

“Oh, stop _moping_ already!”� Sirius exclaimed, closing the magazine and tossing it on the nearby coffee table.

“Moping?”� James laughed forcefully. “I’m not--”�

“Prongs, let’s skip the part of the conversation where you deny the fact that you’re moping until I convince you that you are.”� Sirius interjected. “Instead, let’s get to the part where I tell you what to do so you can fix this little mess of yours.”�

James smiled, a bit more genuinely than before at the thought of Sirius fixing one of his ‘little messes’ that ironically almost always involved one, Lily Evans.

“And how, pray tell, do you propose I go about fixing things?”� James asked.

“Easy,”� Sirius grinned. “Go talk to her.”�

“ _Now_?”� James replied.

“No, in another fifty years,”� Sirius’ tone was sardonic as he rolled his eyes. “Of course now!”�

James muttered something about the fact that waiting a good fifty years might give Lily just enough time to cool off and forget this ever happened before he noticed that Sirius had gotten up from the single armchair he had been sitting in and was walking over to where, he, James sat on the much larger sofa.

Sirius grabbed his friend by the upper arm and pulled James up to his feet with ease.

“Padfoot, wait,”� James said nervously as Sirius steered him toward the front door, by this time practically pushing him every step of the way. “m-maybe this isn’t such a good idea-- maybe I should give her time to cool off.”�

“Nuh-uh! No way, it’s now or never, mate and trust me, you’ll thank me for this later.”� Sirius said opening the door and with one final push, effectively forcing James to stumble onto his own porch steps.

James straightened himself before turning around to face his best friend with a look of shock on his face.

“Now then,”� Sirius said from the doorway. “You’re going to go next door, talk to Lily and find out what’s going on, ideally through apologizing since that’s probably the only way you’re going to get her to talk to you and don’t even _think_ about coming back until you’ve made up!”� Sirius added before slamming the door in James’ face. 

“I believe I’ve just been kicked out of my own house…there is something so wrong about that.”� James mused before plucking up the courage to walk toward the Evans’ home just next door. Padfoot was right, he needed to sort this out with Lily sooner rather than later.

James reached the Evans’ front door and with a determined look on his face, rang the doorbell. He cold hear the pounding of footsteps coming from the other side and a flash of red zipped by the sheer curtain covered window to his right.

_Good_ , James thought associating the red hair in the window to be Lily’s. _It’s better she answers the door-- less of a chance of her pretending to not be home or slamming the door in my face before I can explain myself…I hope._

James gulped nervously but quickly pushed all thoughts of rejection out of his head, launching instead immediately into explanation as soon as the door opened.

“Look, Lily, I’m sorry about yesterday-- I didn’t mean for it to happen and it wasn’t all my fault!”� James rambled, talking a mile a minute and looking down at his shoes rather than at the girl who had just opened the door. “I just-- what he aid was just…and you-- you shouldn’t have to put up with it and I _know_ you don’t need a hero or someone to protect you, but it’s just not right and _someone’s_ got to do it,”�

“Um, exc--”�

“No, wait, just, let me get this out, Lily, _please._ ”� James said, cutting her off, still not daring to look her in the eye.

“But I--”�

“What I’m trying to say is,”� James said, cutting her off once more. “that I’m sorry, Lily--”� James who had finally looked up let his sentence trail off as he took in the sight of the girl in front of him for the first time. “and you’re not Lily, are you?”� James finally finished, bemused.

“Correct, Captain States-the-Obvious.”� the girl replied, her arms crossed over her hest and a tinge of good natured laughter in her voice.

“Sorry, it’s just you look an awful lot like Lily-- well, actually, now that I think about it you don’t but…hang on, why didn’t you tell me you weren’t who I thought you were before I got off on my speech?”� James asked.

“Well, in my defense, I _did_ try but you didn’t exactly let me get a word in now did you? Just kept telling me, or rather Lily, to shut up.”� The girl replied, her thick American accent bowling over James, who thought it sounded quite out of place in this quaint English town.

“And technically speaking,”� the girl elaborated. “most people do care to _look_ at who they’re speaking to before they go off on a rampaging monologue, or at least they do where I’m from.”�

James fought a blush-- the girl had a point and he was feeling rather sheepish but he hid his embarrassment with another question.

“And where are you from anyway?”�

“Take a wild guess”� She responded rolling her eyes.

“Alright, stupid question,”� James replied. “I guess it’d be better for me to ask you who the heck you are, wouldn’t it?”�

“Better, yes, but then again, I think _I_ should be the one asking _you_ that question.”�

“Huh?”�

“Well, do you have a name?”� she asked expectantly.

“Of course,”� James answered defensively, “don’t you?”�

“Naturally.”�

“Well…?”� James’ tone was expectant and he was trying rather hard not to let his slight annoyance show.

“Well, _what_ , exactly?”� She smiled as if she were giving him a hard time on purpose.

“Aren’t you going to _tell_ me what your name is?”� James said, this time knowing he hadn’t kept the annoyance out of his tone.

“I feel like we’re going around in circles-- not exactly very productive.”� she mused.

“Well, we _wouldn’t_ be if you’d just tell me who you are…”�

“Why?”�

“Why, _what_ exactly?”� James said, mimicking her exact words from moments before.

“Why should I be the one to tell you my name first, of course!”�

“Because-- because…because I asked you first!”� James exclaimed, realizing after the words had escaped his lips how childish it sounded.

“But that, is an elementary fact, my dear Watson.”�

“Watson?”�

“You know, _Watson…?_ ”� The girl explained, seeing James’ confused expression. “assistant to one of the greatest detectives ever to grace the pages of English literature?”� The girl continued, seeing James’ face still showed no signs of recognition, “ _Sherlock Holmes?_ Oh come on, he’s _British!_ How can you not…oh just forget it! The point is, this may not be my house but you knocked on the door and I answered it, therefore it is considered proper for you to introduce yourself since technically you initiated this little conversation.”�

James looked at her and shook his head as if willing his thoughts to unscramble.

“You lost me at that Sherlock fellow, whoever he is…”�

“Sherlock? Maggie, who are you talking to?”� Jeff Evans asked, now entering the room as well.

“Dunno, some strange boy who won’t tell me who he is.”� The girl named Maggie shrugged.

“Strange-- Oh! Hi James!”� Jeff exclaimed, noticing him standing on the porch.

“See? Now really, how hard would it have been for you to say ‘Hi, my name’s James’?”� Maggie interjected.

“Hi, Jeff…um, can I ask you a question, sir?”� James asked, effectively ignoring Maggie’s comment.

“Yes.”� Jeff said curiously.

“Who’s Sherlock?”�

“Sherlock? Oh Maggie, don’t confuse the poor by-- you can’t expect wizards to know everything about muggles!”�

“Aww, but Uncle Jeff, it’s so much fun and he’s so easy to confuse!”� Maggie pouted playfully.

“ _Uncle_ Jeff?”� James repeated.

“Oh yes, sorry where are my manners? James, this is my niece Maggie, Maggie this is James Potter-- he lives just next door.”�

A look of dawning passed over Maggie’s features. 

“ _Oh_ , James _Potter,_ huh?”� a smile played on her lips. “The same James Potter who goes to school with my favorite cousin? Well, it’s nice to meet you, then, I’ve heard a lot about you.”�

“Lily’s _cousin_?”� James asked. 

Well, really, he thought, that would explain why he’d confused her for Lily in the first place. Although, now that he got a good look at her, James realized they didn’t look much alike at all-- they were around the same height by the looks of it and they appeared to have the same nose, but that was where the similarities stopped. For one, Maggie, although a redhead herself, had hair of a lighter shade and she had quite a deal more freckles scattered about her face and arms. Her eyes were also a light shade of blue rather than the deep shade of green Lily’s were and they were quite a deal smaller than Lily’s larger almond shaped ones.

“Yes, that’s usually what we refer to the relationship between two siblings’ children as.”� Maggie stated as if talking to a five year old.

James was brought back into the conversation at hand at Maggie’s statement.

“ _Maggie_ ,”� Jeff said as if scolding his niece, although one look at his facial expression would tell you he was far from being seriously mad at her.

“Sorry! Sorry!”� Maggie said grinning. “I can’t help it, Uncle Jeff-- he’s just so confuses so easily!”�

“You’ll have to excuse my niece, James, she has a rather twisted perception of what humor is…”� Jeff said looking down at Maggie who gave him an innocent ‘ _who, me?’_ expression.

James laughed. “It’s alright, Jeff…being friends with Sirius for almost seven years skews your sense of humor to an extensive range.”�

“Well,”� Jeff said, changing the topic. “I’m guessing you stopped by to see Lily-- she’s actually not here, though.”�

“Oh?”� James replied.

“I think Laurie said they were going to pick up bridesmaid dresses today but then again, I could be mistaken. Either way they’re doing some kind of wedding related activity-- would you like me to tell her you stopped by?”� Jeff asked, politely.

“Erm, sure, that’d be great, thanks Jeff, I’d better be getting back to check up on Sirius anyway-- he’s probably bored out of his mind.”� James replied. “Bye Jeff, it was nice meeting you, Maggie!”� James said, waving as he walked back to his own house.

Jeff watched James go inside before glancing sideways at his niece.

“Sherlock? Watson?”�

“What?”� Maggie said innocently, looking up at her uncle who was a great deal taller than she was. “It’s a perfectly well known saying-- how was I supposed to know he was a wizard?”�

Jeff laughed good heartedly, giving Maggie’s hair a loving ruffle.

“So that’s _the_ James Potter, huh?”� Maggie said changing the topic slightly, “The bane of my dear cousin, Lily’s existence?”�

“I guess so,”� Jeff said.

“I like him.”� Maggie said finally in a rather definite tone.

Jeff smiled and ruffled her hair once more.

“So do I, love, so do I-- come on, we’ll make some lunch before the girls get home.”� Jeff said leading Maggie to the kitchen as he closed the front door.

Lily trudged up the front steps, wrenching the door open tiredly, and extremely grateful that her mum had allowed her to skip the trip to the florists and the bakers which she, Petunia, and Marge and Barbara Dursley still had to endure. It was three in the afternoon but all the same Lily was exhausted-- not to mention completely agitated, but then again, that’s what bridesmaid wedding shopping with Petunia and Mrs. Dursley does to you, Lily thought to herself. She closed the door leaning heavily on it for a moment before depositing three large bags near the hall closet.

The house seemed uncommonly quite and solitary to her all of a sudden. _Strange_ , Lily thought, _Dad’s supposed to be at home today…_

She wandered into the living room thinking her father might be in there but stopped in her tracks as she took in the scene of an unidentifiable and unrecognizable figure seated in the middle of the two-seater sofa, a copy of today’s _‘London Times’_ news paper effectively covering their face.

“Hello?”� Lily called out to the stranger cautiously.

“Well, it’s about time you got home,”� The stranger replied slowly. “And here I thought my clothes were going to go out of style waiting for you.”�

The voice coming from behind the newspaper was strikingly familiar to Lily but she wasn’t sure why. And then it hit her like a sack full of galleons over the head, exactly who the voice belonged to.

“Maggie…?”�

Slowly but surely, the person seated on the couch lowered the newspaper until Lily found herself staring at the freckly, grinning face of her cousin Maggie.

“Hi, favorite cousin!”� Maggie exclaimed, unable to control her excitement any longer.

“Maggie!”� Lily squealed tackling her cousin before she had the chance to get up from the couch. “Oh, I’ve missed you! How’s school? Why are you here? No, wait, _when_ did you get here? Is Aunt Rose here too?”� Lily rambled as she seated herself as close to Maggie as possible.

“Woah, Lily, one question at a time.”�

“Sorry but it’s just, I can’t believe you’re actually here!”� Lily grinned widely.

Maggie’s smile widened if possible even further and she threw her arms around Lily again, embracing her tightly once more.

“It’s good to see you, Lily.”�

Lily let go and looked at Maggie once more.

“So, what’s going on?”�

“What do you mean?”� Maggie asked.

“Well, not that this isn’t the best surprise in the world but well, you’re HERE! How?”� Lily gushed excitedly.

“Well, I’m here for the wedding, obviously.”�

“And Aunt Rose?”� Lily asked.

“Mom’s flying down closer to the actual wedding date-- she wanted to come down earlier with me but the office could only let her come down two days before the wedding earliest-- we’ll be staying for about a week after the wedding though, that’s the compromise.”� Maggie explained.

“And you?”� Lily asked.

“What about me?”� Maggie said laughing.

“You just randomly decide to show up almost two weeks early without your mum?”�

“Oh, this? No, this was planned about a week and a half ago.”� 

Lily let her jaw drop in shock at Maggie’s words.

“And why wasn’t I informed of this?”� Lily asked.

“Lily, Lily, _Lily!_ Haven’t you ever heard of a little thing called a ’surprise’?”� Maggie grinned.

“Yeah, well, surprises suck-- I like to know what’s going on around me.”� Lily grumbled.

“You lie.”� Maggie challenged.

“Okay, maybe you’re right but still-- I guess I just can’t believe everyone knew-- even dad--”�

“Oh, yes, Uncle Jeff was crucial to the plan-- I mean someone had to pick me up from the Heathrow airport!”� Maggie laughed.

Lily giggled. 

“Oh and by the way, before I forget,”� Maggie began, still grinning. “someone came by to see you today,”�

“Who?”� Lily asked curiously.

“About six foot two, messy dark hair, glasses, lovely hazel eyes, and coincidentally happens to live next door…?”� Maggie described, watching Lily’s face. 

“So you met James Potter, did you?”� Lily said simply.

“Yes…and _why_ , my darling Lily did you not inform your favorite cousin to whom you tell EVERYTHING that James Potter the bane of your existence ever since you met him during your first year at that school of yours just so happened to move in next door, hmmm?”� 

Lily winced slightly at Maggie’s sideways glance-- that was a very good question. Why hadn’t she told Maggie James had moved next door? Why hadn’t she told any of her friends from Hogwarts, James had move in next door? The answers to these questions were enough to make Lily’s head spin.

“Dunno…it just never came up…”� Lily finished lamely.

“Alright, well, I am rather curious about one other thing…”� Maggie trailed off.

“And that would be?”� Lily asked.

“What he did to make you so mad.”� she shrugged.

“Mad? How’d you know I was mad at him?”�

“Well, when I opened the door, he started apologizing, almost groveling, really. So whatever he did, you must have been really upset…”�

“But, why would he apologize to you?”� Lily asked.

“Well, you see, he must have thought you were going to be the one to answer the door so when I opened it, he thought I was you and since he didn’t actually look up until he finished his little spiel, he didn’t realize he had been apologizing to the wrong person the whole time.”�

“Oh dear…”� Lily said through a laugh.

“It was a very nice apology though, just in case you’re wondering-- I was a bit out of the loop since I have no idea why you were so mad at him-- he must really like you though, to come over here and face your wrath, not to mention to apologize so profusely.”� Maggie mused.

“Yeah, well…”� Lily grumbled.

And all it took was one look, one pressing look from Maggie before Lily found herself spilling the events of the past three or so weeks of the summer-- everything from the day she’d found out James had moved in next door all the way up until yesterday when she’d yelled at him for trying to be her knight in shining armor. 

An hour later found the two girls exiting the Evans home and walking toward the Potter house next door, or rather, Maggie was walking toward the Potter house with Lily in tow, dragging her along as she went.

“Aww, come on, Mags, can’t I just wait for James to come back and apologize again?”� Lily asked.

“No you most certainly can’t! Besides, you know you were a bit out of line yourself so it’s only fair for you to go over there and initiate some sort of conversation that’ll eventually lead to a reconciliation between the two of you.”� Maggie replied.

Lily dug her heels into the slightly moist grass of her front lawn.

“Lily this is ridiculous,”� Maggie said. She paused for a moment before a look of dawning swept over her blue eyes. “You’re not _scared_ are you?”�

Lily laughed. “Scared? Of what? Why would I be scared?”�

“I dunno, maybe because deep down you actually _want_ James to be the one who saves you all the time…”� Maggie trailed off. She saw Lily give her a warning look as her comment sunk in and not wanting to agitate her cousin so soon after her arrival she changed her course slightly. “Or maybe because a part of you knows you overreacted yesterday and it wasn’t all James’ fault and now you’re afraid to admit it?”�

“Nope, that’s not the reason either-- next!”� Lily replied.

“Well, I’ve run out of theories, my dear, so why don’t _you_ tell me why you don’t want to go.”� Maggie said, giving her a pointed look.

Lily thought for a moment, knowing a simple ‘I dunno’ wouldn’t be a specific enough answer for Maggie. 

“Nervous, I guess.”� Lily mumbled finally.

“Nerves? Is that all?”� Maggie asked, taking advantage of Lily not fully paying attention and pulling her slowly closer to James’ house. “the Lily Evans _I_ know _never_ gets nervous-- she’s brave and determined! You even told me so yourself once that was the reason you got put into that house at your school, Gryffin-whosits.”�

“ _Gryffin-whosits?_ ”� Lily repeated raising an eyebrow. “You mean _Gryffindor?”�_

“Exactly! Gryffindor! Home of the brave, or so you told me.”�

“So basically you’re saying its time for me to muster up that Gryffindor courage, yeah?”� 

“Right-o.”� Maggie said giving her an encouraging smile.

“Right…”� Lily replied, heaving a sigh and turning around to find that she had surprisingly reached the Potter’s front door.

Lily extended her index finger cautiously, barely grazing it with her fingertip before pulling it back as if she had been burned.

“I changed my mind-- I don’t want to do this now, Mags!”� Lily whispered as she turned to look back at her cousin.

Maggie smiled inwardly. Obviously Lily was going to need a small push in the right-- ‘Sorry, Lily, but it’s for your own good.’ Maggie thought inwardly before grabbing Lily’s hand and forcing her to ring the doorbell.

The distinct ring echoed loudly through the house and Lily’s eyes grew to roughly the size of saucers as the realization of what Maggie had done dawned on her and instantly, fleeting thoughts of possibly having enough time to run away before one of the Potter answered the door crossed her mind.

“Don’t even think about it, Lily, besides, we’re a little old to be playing ding dong ditch, don’t you think?”� Maggie stated, recognizing the look of panic on Lily’s face.

“Never! You’re never too old to relive all those fun childhood games.”� Lily said stubbornly.

“Lily, be reasonable!”� Maggie said in a stage whisper. “You can’t just leave now, anyway-- they’ll see you walking, or rather, running back home and really, how would that look?”�

“Oh yeah?”� Lily replied in a testy voice. “And what exactly am I supposed to do then? Because unless you’ve got another _brilliant_ idea, my initial fight or flight instinct is starting to look pretty good right about…”� Lily trailed off her sentence and abruptly turned around at the sound of the door before her opening.

“Hello, Lily!”� Moira Potter greeted kindly.

“Hi, Mrs. Potter, how are you?”� Lily said, so confidently you would have never guessed just a moment before she had been dreading this moment entirely.

“Just fine, love, and yourself?”�

“I’m doing great!”� Lily lied. “This is my cousin Maggie-- she’s here from the States for my sister’s wedding.”�

“Oh how nice,”� Moira smiled. “Have you been to England before, dear?”�

“No, Mrs. Potter-- well, once actually when I was about six but I barely remember anything.”�

“Ah, so there’ll be lots for you to see before you go back home.”�

“Yes, ma’am, hopefully, if we have time, that is.”� Maggie smiled.

“Please, dear, call me Moira-- I’ve asked Lily to do the same but I expect old habits of referring to your elders as Mr. Mrs. Die hard, don’t they?”� Moira said, giving Lily a wink.

Lily blushed slightly.

“That’s right, Mrs. Potter-- er, Moira.”�

“Now, were you looking for James, dear?”� Moira asked, turning to look at Lily.

“Yes, Maggie mentioned he stopped by earlier while I was out with my sister-- is he here?”� _Please say no, please say no, please say no!_

“Yes, of course, dear, he’s in the sitting room-- go right on in!”� 

_Damn._

Moira moved aside to let both Lily and Maggie in before closing the door behind them.

“You kids have fun and if you need anything, just let me know-- I’ll be in the back doing a bit of gardening.”� Moira said, walking toward the back door.

“Thanks, Moira”� Lily said, watching her leave.

“She was nice,”� Maggie commented. “I like her.”�

“Me too,”� Lily smiled.

Her smile faltered slightly as she heard two muffled but very distinct voices up ahead in the next room and she realized suddenly why she had been so nervous to come here in the first place. In the almost seven years of knowing him, she had never once apologized to James Potter, not once-- not even if she’d hexed him or poured a pitcher of pumpkin juice over his head. _He_ had always been the one to apologize even if Lily had owed him one herself, but this time, Lily knew she had more of a reason to apologize than James did and that thought alone made her nervous.

James opened his front door with ease. Quite frankly, he was surprised Sirius hadn’t put some kind of spell on it prohibiting him to enter until he and Lily had worked out their differences.

He went back to the sitting room, plopping himself down on the sofa directly across from where Sirius was seated, still reading the same magazine from this morning.

Sirius peered up at him from the magazine curiously.

“She forgave you so quickly? That’s got to be some kind of a record, mate.”� Sirius grinned.

“No, not even close.”� James said, laughing hollowly.

“That furious with you?”� Sirius laughed.

“Hardly a laughing matter, Sirius but lucky for you that’s not exactly the case.”� James replied.

Sirius raised his eyebrows as a signal for James to elaborate.

“She wasn’t home-- off shopping with the wedding party.”� James explained.

“So we’re back to square one until she comes back?”� 

“Yep.”� James sighed, grabbing the stuffed quaffle from the ground and tossing it up in the air. “back to square one.”�

“Think she’s home yet?”� Sirius asked around an hour later.

“I’m afraid to answer that question…”� James said seriously as he tossed the quaffle at him.

“And why would that be?”�

“Because if I say yes, you’re liable to throw me out of my own house _again._ ”�

“I wouldn’t…not if you came willingly, at least.”� Sirius smirked tossing the ball back.

“ _Willingly_ being the key word in that sentence, but no, I don’t think she is.”�

“Why?”�

“Well, last time she went wedding shopping she didn’t get back until around eleven in the evening.”�

“And you know this why?”� Sirius asked before gasping and answering his own question. “Are you _stalking_ her?”�

“ _No.”�_ James said defensively. “Her bedroom window just happens to be directly across from mine and--”�

“ _Directly_ across from yours,”� Sirius interrupted. “And why haven’t you mentioned this to me before-- very sexy and possibly kinky.”�

“No, it’s not anything, you pervert because I, unlike you, do not plan to take advantage of the fact that I have a very clear view of the girl I’ve fancied since forever’s room.”�

“Come on, Prongs, you can’t tell me the thought alone isn’t tempting.”�

“Tempting, maybe, but I--”�

“You respect her too much, I get it.”� Sirius said.

“Yeah, that and well, let’s face it, she’d kill me twice and then bury whatever remains of me if she ever caught me.”� James said, joking slightly. “Besides, it’s not like Lily’s stupid enough to strip with the curtains open anyway.”�

“Right….why are we talking about the view from your window again?”� 

“Ummm…”� James thought. “Oh right, you asked why I knew Lily got home so late-- I heard her mumbling about her sister and the wedding through my window.”�

“Interesting.”�

James rolled his eyes thinking to himself that Sirius found almost everything interesting.

Sirius changed the subject, asking James instead who would win the Quidditch World Cup this year. He was going into his speech about how Sirius crazy to think that the Tornadoes stood a chance considering they hadn’t gone to the World Cup in a good fifteen or so years when he suddenly had an inkling to look toward the door. There, standing at the doorway to the living room was none other than Lily Evans. He was so shocked by her presence that James shut his eyes tightly before opening them again, as if once he opened them again, the figure of Lily Evans would vanish, having been nothing more than a mere mirage.

“Lily.”� her name fell from his lips, and she could hear the slight surprise in his tone.

Lily smiled slightly.

“Hi, Lily!”� Sirius said brightly

“Er, Maggie mentioned you stopped by earlier…”� Lily trailed off, her attention still focused on James though she gave Sirius a smile of acknowledgement.

“Maggie? I thought your sister’s name was Petunia…”� Sirius said.

“Maggie, my cousin.”� Lily explained, motioning to the girl standing beside her who waved.

“Right, we met earlier.”� James said, smiling at Maggie.

“But _we_ didn’t.”� Sirius said, grinning widely.

“Sirius, my cousin Maggie,”� Lily said, introducing. “Maggie, this is James’ best friend Sirius.”�

“Sirius as in the star in the constellation? Interesting name”�Maggie mused, shaking Sirius’ hand.

“Er, thank you?”� Sirius said, not sure if he should take that as a compliment or not.

An awkward silence fell upon them and James shuffled his feet.

“I have to pee.”� Maggie said suddenly.

“Thanks for sharing, Mags.”� Lily said, sardonically.

“Think you could show me where the bathroom is, Sirius?”� she asked.

“Sure, it’s just down the hall-- take a left and it’s the first door on the right.”� Sirius said automatically.

“Thanks, but my sense of direction’s horrible-- I think it’d be lots better if you could show me yourself where the bathroom was.”� Maggie said, hoping he would get the hint.

Sirius gave her a confused look before it dawned on him why Maggie was insisting he show her where the bathroom was.

“ _Oh!_ Right, sure! Follow me!”� Sirius said, grabbing her by the arm. “Er, Prongs, Lily, we’ll be right back-- cant’ have your cousin getting lost now, can we, Lily?”�

Maggie rolled her eyes, as she dragged Sirius out of the room, taking care to shut the door behind her slightly. 

As soon as they reached the hallway she let go of Sirius’ arm.

“I’m guessing you don’t really have a need to use the loo, then?”� Sirius asked.

“Obviously, but this is going to be awkward enough without us in there and I figure we should give them a little space-- I’m sure you know how my cousin is, by now-- she’s rather proud and apologizing to her former enemy isn’t something she does everyday.”�

“Right.”� Sirius smiled. “But you can’t tell me you’re not curious as to see how this goes.”�

“Of course I am.”� 

“You up for discretely listening in on their conversation through the crack in the door?”�

“Definitely!”� Maggie grinned.

“You’ll have to excuse my cousin-- no sense for subtlety that girl.”� Lily said, finally, breaking the silence.

James laughed shortly before silence overtook them once more.

“I--”� Both Lily and James started.

They grinned awkwardly.

“You first,”� They said in unison once more.

Lily pointed to herself, signaling that James should be quiet and listen.

“I’m…..sorry,”� Lily finally said. “about yesterday.”�

“No,”� James said, prompted by her apology. “I’m sorry-- I shouldn’t have used magic on a muggle…I’m supposed to know better.”�

“You’re right, you shouldn’t have…”�Lily trailed off. “But, I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I mean, I was mad at you, but it wasn’t just you I was mad at really…if that even remotely makes sense.”�

James gave her a contemplative look before responding. “No, it doesn’t really.”�

“I was upset about my sister, if anything. It’s hard…to have a sister who hates you so passionately because of what you are, especially if she didn’t always hate you. Believe it or not, things used to be pretty good between us until I got accepted to Hogwarts and well, I guess, I was just upset that what happened to Vernon yesterday gave her yet another reason to hate magic-- to hate me.”� Lily explained.

James nodded. “But it wasn’t even your fault. Surely she understands that…?”�

“That’s the thing, it’s all the same to her-- it doesn’t matter to her who did it so much as either way, I’m in some way related to what happened yesterday, you see?”�

“I think I do,”� James said finally. “But it’s quite a narrow minded way to live-- to hate something because you fear it. Or to believe all magic is evil.”�

“Yes, but it’s also hard to change someone’s views on the matter if their views are already set.”� Lily pointed out.

“What you did yesterday, James,”� Lily began. “Trying to ’defend my honor’ or however you’d like to look at it, it was a nice gesture and deep down, I want you to know that I appreciate it, but you can’t keep saving me-- you’re not always going to be around to save me.”� Lily reasoned.

_But what if I want to be?_ James thought inwardly as he nodded, showing Lily that he understood what she was saying.

“You’ve got to let me stand on my own first before you come riding in on that white horse, so to speak, or else, how will I ever learn how to defend myself if everyone’s doing it for me?”� she said, smiling.

“Okay.”� James nodded. “But, if you can’t, I mean hypothetically speaking, if by some rare occurrence you couldn’t save yourself, could I, you know, save you?”� James asked feeling rather sheepish asking the question after it escaped his lips.

“Sure-- if, like you said, by some rare occurrence I couldn’t take car of myself.”� Lily promised all the while thinking in the back of her mind that the odds of that happening were slim to none. “But really, being the smartest witch of Hogwarts, you don’t think I could have taken all those other people who’ve teased me in the past if I wanted to?”�

“Of course you could have, Lily.”� James grinned, realizing she was teasing him slightly. “Everything’s okay with your sister and her fiancée, right? I mean, he didn’t call off the wedding because of…”� James trailed off his sentence.

“Oh, no.”� Lily said, to a relieved looking James. “Actually, right after you left and she caught up with Vernon, an obliviator from the Ministry showed up at our house and wanted to know if a memory charm was in order-- I gave Petunia the choice of erasing Vernon’s memory of the afternoon’s events but surprisingly, she said no.”�

“Really?”� James replied curiously.

Lily nodded. “She said she could deal with Vernon knowing and this way she wouldn’t have to be so round about when talking about my school life and such-- they did however decide not to tell his parents.”�

“Interesting.”�

“Quite. But I did have a few conditions concerning the matter and I told Petunia she’d better follow them or I could call the Obliviator back at any moment--”�

“ _Lily!_ You know you can’t do that!”� James interrupted.

“Well, of course _I_ know that, but she doesn’t.”� Lily said, mischievously. “Anyway, I told her to change the bridesmaids dresses to a colour that was a bit more flattering to my hair.”� Lily explained.

James laughed, remembering the night when Lily had shown him the swatch of fabric in the color of her dress. “Well, that was quite convenient…anything else?”�

“Not much more-- but Petunia said the arrangement would be off if we, that is to say you, Sirius, and I, ever did magic like that again on Vernon which shouldn’t be a problem, right?”� Lily asked.

“Right.”� James assured. “So…we’re okay, now, yeah?”�

“Yeah.”� Lily smiled. “completely forgiven.”�

Maggie and Sirius smiled at each other from their crouched positions near the living room door and waited a good five seconds before walking back into the sitting room trying not to look as if they’d been standing outside door and listening in on every word Lily and James spoke.

“Thanks for taking me to the bathroom, Sirius-- I’d have surely gotten lost without you.”� Maggie said, more for show than anything.

“Anytime.”� Sirius said.

James rolled his eyes and gave Lily a knowing smile.

“So, what’d we miss while we were gone?”� Maggie asked.

“Not much-- James and I talked out a few things.”� Lily said, casually as if nothing had happened.

Sirius shot James a questioning look and James gave him a discrete thumbs up, letting Sirius know him and Lily had made up.

“What are you both doing tonight?”� James asked. “Do you want to stay for dinner? Mum’s been dying to have you over.”�

“Ooh…”� Lily winced. “Sorry, we can’t-- my mum’ll be getting home soon and I’m sure she’ll want to see Maggie but we’ll take a rain check, won’t we Maggie?”�

“Definitely, but Lily’s right, we’d better get going.”� Maggie said, smiling.

“Oh! Before I forget, here.”� Lily said, hading James a fancy cream colored envelope.

“What’s this?”� He asked.

“An invitation for Petunia and Vernon’s wedding for all of you guys.”� Lily explained.

“Wait a minute-- you’re telling me that your sister and her boyfriend are going to let us-- me and James come to their wedding even after what happened earlier?”� Sirius asked, hardly believing it.

“Yet another one of my conditions,”� Lily said, grinning. “Trust me, Petunia didn’t surrender quietly but my parent’s really want you to be there…and well…”� Lily thought before adding with a slight blush, “I put my foot down about this one.-- I’d really like for you guys to come.”�

“We’ll be there, definitely-- all four of us.”� James said, automatically.

“Great!”� Lily exclaimed. “Well, we’d better go-- see you both later.”�

“Nice to meet you.”� Maggie smiled as she followed Lily out.

James looked down at the envelope in his hands before deciding to go with Sirius to pester his mum about what she was going to make for dinner, feeling much lighter now that everything was good again between him and Lily.


	12. Return of the Pogo Stick

****

Chapter 12: Return of the Po-go Stick

 

 

 

Lily grinned as she watched Maggie stumble into the kitchen the following morning, taking the seat next to Lily and across from Petunia and her uncle Jeff.

“Good morning, my dear-- aren’t we looking wide eyed and bushy tailed?” Lily greeted cheerfully to which she merely received a growl.

“And what, may I ask has put you in such a _divine_ mood this morning?” Lily teased, a smile playing on her lips.

“Oh, stuff it, Lils-- it’s one o’clock in the _morning_ back home.” Maggie grumbled. 

“Should have gone to sleep when I told you to yesterday…” Lily replied in a sing-song voice.

“I wasn’t _tired_!” Maggie exclaimed.

“Maggie, it was three am and you were playing _Solitaire!_ ” 

“Only because you wouldn’t play _Go-Fish_ with me anymore!” Maggie shot back. “Besides, my internal clock is set eight hours behind!-- that means it was only four in the afternoon Pacific Standard Time-- I _hate_ jetlag! Why do we need stupid time zones anyway?” Maggie grumbled as she set her head on the tabletop not so gently.

Lily patted Maggie’s head gently, still smiling and Maggie lifted her head from the table, to drop it onto Lily’s shoulder instead, using it as a makeshift pillow, her eyes drooping closed.

Jeff Evans peered over at the pair from the top of his newspaper. 

“No sleeping, Maggie-- if you want to get used to the time difference, it’s best to stay up and go about business as usual.”

Maggie effectively ignored her uncle’s advice and instead responded with an incoherent noise before further burrowing her head into Lily’s shoulder, trying desperately to block out the offending sunlight streaming through the window. Lily noticed however, that she perked up slightly when Laurie placed a cup of coffee before her along with a breakfast plate.

“Feeling better?” Lily asked after Maggie’s first few sips of coffee.

“Much.” Maggie replied simply, grinning into the warm mug between her hands.

Suddenly, Petunia emitted a high pitched screech, causing Lily to look up from her breakfast and Maggie to suddenly look quite awake indeed.

The sound of a plate breaking into a million pieces as it came into contact with the floor was heard amidst Petunia’s screams and Lily’s attention was briefly averted to her mother who had dropped to butter dish in surprise.

“Get it _away! GET IT AWAY!!!”_ Petunia said, bolting from her chair and running around the kitchen like a madwoman.

It was then that Lily noticed the rolled up news paper atop her sister’s plate of scrambled eggs and a quick look to the space just above Petunia’s head confirmed Lily’s suspicions. 

There, following Petunia around with it’s leg outstretched to reveal a small leather pouch was a large brown barn owl.

“Get it away! _Get it away!_ _GET IT AWAY!_ ” Petunia hollered, still dancing around the kitchen.

“Hold on, stop screaming, Petunia. It’s just an _owl_ ” Lily said, rolling her eyes as she stood up, pulling a few strange looking coins out of her pocket as she did so. She beckoned the owl and it came almost immediately, abandoning the pursuit of Petunia who took the opportunity to dive under the kitchen table.

The owl landed swiftly on Lily’s outstretched arm and Lily deposited the coins into the owl’s leather pouch, and with that, the owl spread its wings and took off through the open window once more.

Lily turned and taking in Maggie’s curious expression, shrugged her shoulders.

“ _Daily Prophet_ owl-- just pay him for your newspaper and he takes off.” explained Lily.

Petunia poked her head from under the table cautiously.

“I think it’s safe for you to come out now, love.” Jeff said, kindly to his oldest daughter while offering a hand to help her up.

“It’s gone?” Petunia asked fearfully. She turned to look at everyone in the kitchen in turn, as if needing more reassurance that the owl had indeed left, before crawling out from under the table and dusting off her knees.

“ _What?”_ She asked pointedly, noticing that Maggie was holding a hand to her mouth and trying desperately not to laugh.

“It’s just…erm….” Maggie began, her voice quivering slightly. “You’ve got…well, I believe you’ve got an owl dropping on y-your….” She finally said, pointing at the left side of Petunia’s head.

Petunia’s eyes grew roughly to the size of saucers as she hastily grabbed a large serving spoon from the table and positioned it, using the spoon as a makeshift mirror, and sure enough, there to the upper left of her ear was a runny white substance, already trickling down toward her shoulder. For the second time that morning a shriek escaped Petunia’s lips, this time however, more out of rage than fear.

“This is all your fault, Lily-- I HATE MAGIC!!!” she screamed before bounding up the stairs, all the while crying about how many times she’d have to wash her hair for it to be decontaminated.

Lily caught Maggie’s eyes and as soon as they heard the loud distinct slamming of the upstairs bathroom door, launched into pails of laughter.

Laurie gave them each a pointed look that subsided their laughter slightly before starting up the stairs, muttering something about going to help Petunia wash her hair out.

Maggie and Lily stopped laughing almost immediately at Laurie’s look but Jeff could tell they were suppressing the urge to laugh again as Lily’s shoulders were shaking slightly and Maggie had taken to placing her hand over her mouth again.

“It’s not nice to laugh at your sister Lily, or in your case, Maggie, your cousin.”

“But _Da-ad.”_ Lily said, adding an extra syllable to the word ‘dad’ “We’re not laughing _at_ her, really…” she trailed off.

“Yeah, uncle J-- what she means is,” Maggie began, picking up where Lily left off, “Petty just gets so worked up over the teensiest little things-- it’s hard not to laugh at that, and we’re not _purposefully_ making fun of her…”

Jeff paused as if considering what they just said before speaking again. 

“Alright, I understand what you’re both trying to explain but bear in mind that Petunia’s rather stressed at the moment-- she’s getting married next week, you know and she’s got a lot on her plate--”

Lily rolled her eyes. _Petunia_ had a lot on her plate? Puh-lease! Mrs. Dursley was taking care of EVERYTHING! Heck, all Petunia essentially had to do was show up at the bloody ceremony and _look_ pretty if she really wanted to…

“ _So_ …” Jeff continued, giving Lily a pointed look of his own. “Would both of you please just back off slightly-- I’m not saying you can’t have fun, Lily and Maggie, just….try not to induce much more stress on Petunia, yeah?”

“Okay, Dad.” Lily said, raising both her palms as if in surrender.

“Yeah, uncle Jeff, for you, we’ll stay out of Petunia’s way.”

“Thank you, girls, that really means a lot to me.” Jeff grinned warmly before gulping down the last of his tea and standing from the table.

“Working again today?” Lily asked, not able to hide all the disappointment in her voice.

“Sorry, ’fraid so-- but not for the whole day, I’ll be back early.” Jeff promised, looking slightly guilty at having to go to work. He had not, as in summers past been able to spend very much time with Lily this holiday. “But I’m sure you won’t miss me too terribly what with Maggie here to entertain you.” Jeff said, kissing the top of _Lily’s_ head.

Lily grinned at the statement.

“Don’t worry, uncle Jeff, I’ll keep her company!” Maggie piped in.

Jeff grinned and placed a kiss atop her head as well before picking up his briefcase and heading toward the door.

“See you girls later tonight!”

The front door shut softly behind Jeff and Maggie immediately turned in her seat to face her cousin.

“So what’ve we got planned for today?”

Lily reached over and grabbed the _Daily Prophet_ from where it sat on Petunia’s untouched plate, making a slight face at the fact that one of the corners was soggy from sitting atop hot eggs for so long.

“Why don’t you finish breakfast first-- I’ve a feeling you’re going to need all the energy you can get.” Lily said smoothing out the _Daily Prophet_ on the table before her.

“Yes, ma’am” Maggie said, giving a mock salute before proceeding to butter her toast.

Maggie was just about to take a bite before the paper Lily had spread out caught her eye.

“Holy _crow!”_ Maggie said, dropping the toast on the table as she stared at the moving photographs in awe. “Do all pictures do that?”

“Do what?” Lily asked absentmindedly as she read the headline news.

“Well, _move_.” Maggie asked.

“Oh, yeah, yeah they do.” Lily said smiling and remembering that once upon a time she’d been just as awe struck by details of the magical world such as this. “It just has to do with the way you develop them.” Lily explained.

“Neat…” Maggie breathed, her eyes trailing over the front page. “What’s that thing, though?”

Lily trailed her eyes over to the spot where Maggie’s finger lay, pointing at a black and white figure of an illuminated skull and snake, looming over an otherwise sleepy looking town-- the picture alone sent a horrible sinking feeling right to her stomach.. A trail of fog floated lazily over the image etched in the sky but it shown brightly through the offending cloud and although it wasn’t visible from the photograph, Lily could almost picture the bright acid green glow the skull was almost certainly colored.

“It’s um, well, it’s called the dark mark.” Lily said in an almost whisper.

“Is it…bad?” Maggie asked, looking at Lily’s serious expression.

“Very. When it appears in the sky like that, it means he’s killed.”

“He?”

“Voldemort.” Lily elaborated, feeling the need to explain-- to make Maggie understand.

“He’s a dark wizard who’s on the rise here in Europe-- he’s been on the rise for a few years actually.”

“And he-- he just kills people? Just like that? Whenever he damn well feels like it?” Maggie asked, looking positively outraged at the thought.

Lily nodded. “Mostly muggle born people or those who refuse to join him-- but he doesn’t kill all of them, from what I hear, you’ve gotta be pretty special to be murdered by Voldemort’s wand.” Lily said bitterly.

“But, I…don’t understand…what’s he got against, well, people like you and me? And if he doesn’t kill everyone who does?”

“He just thinks pure blooded wizards, like him are the superior race-- pretty crazy, huh?”

“Obviously this Voldemort fellow didn’t learn anything from the Holocaust.” Maggie said.

Lily couldn’t help but smile at Maggie’s feeble attempt to lighten the mood. She nodded slightly. “Problem is, he’s not the only person who thinks that way-- there are quite a few pure blooded wizards who think Voldemort’s got the right idea-- his followers, are called Death Eaters and they’re the ones who usually do the muggle raids.”

“B-but you’ve all got magic! Surely your side-- the good side can stop them somehow.” Maggie said, looking quite flustered.

“Catching death eaters isn’t the problem- they’ve caught a few before but it doesn’t do much when Voldemort can just go out and get more so until _he’s_ stopped, there’s nothing much we can do and according to the _Daily Prophet,_ the Ministry’s doing everything they can, but well…” Lily trailed off.

“Well _what?_ ” Maggie prompted.

“Well, I guess…maybe he’s just…I dunno, too powerful for them-- for the way the Minister’s going about trying to stop him, at least.”

“So that’s it then? And you all just wait and see when the next attack is?” Maggie said.

Lily nodded. “And I guess, just hope that soon, someone’ll come along who _will_ be able to stop him because obviously the dunderheads at the Ministry aren’t going to do it-- always too preoccupied with sending Death Eaters to Azkaban Prison…look, this conversation’s getting a bit depressing-- we didn’t fly you all the way from the west coast of the United States to damper your mood-- let’s talk about something else.” Lily offered.

Maggie could tell Lily didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and she didn’t quite blame her, and though she still had a million more questions, instead, she grinned and changed the subject.

“So what’s on the agenda today?”

“Dunno, you tell me-- you’re the one who’s visiting.” Lily smiled.

“Good point.” Maggie said, “Well…we could just hang out here-- my dad sent me a package with a new video tape just before I left to come here and I haven’t had the chance to watch it yet.”

“Oh?” Lily replied curiously.

Maggie nodded. “Dad’s taken to sending me packages lately--- I guess he feels bad about forgetting to call every week like he promised and only coming to visit once a year-- now he’s trying to _buy_ my affection.”

Lily remembered vaguely at the age of eight, learning of Aunt Rose and Uncle Rob’s divorce and asking her mum what the word ‘divorce’ meant. Maggie never talked much about her dad, just in passing in moments like these as it was always a bit of a sore subject.

“Alright, a movie morning sounds good.” Lily agreed. “But if we’re going to do this, we should do it right.” she finished seriously.

“Good point.” Maggie grinned. “You get the popcorn, I’ll get the drinks and the movie.”

“Deal!” Lily said, bolting from the table toward the stove as Maggie did the same, thought heading upstairs instead.

The popcorn took a while to make as Lily had to cook it on the stove, but finally, she managed to pop a decently sized bowl of golden popcorn.

“ _Finally!”_ Maggie exclaimed as Lily grabbed the bowl along with a few napkins.

“Hey! Not my fault. Besides, you got the easy job.” Lily pointed out.

“You’re right-- I did.” Maggie smiled, stealing some popcorn away from the bowl.

The girls walked toward the living room, Lily leading the way, thought just as they past the front door, the were stopped in their tracks by a rather loud sound coming from outside.

“What was that?” Maggie asked, brow furrowed.

“Dunno, something outside…” Lily paused, looking at the door almost curiously. “come on, let’s go.” Lily said, finally motioning for them to proceed toward the living room. She was stopped again, however when the same almost strangled scream was heard again.

“Maybe we should check it out.” Lily said, finally. “It could be one of the neighborhood kids.”

Maggie nodded in agreement, setting the popcorn down on the hall table while Lily’s left hand went to grab the door knob, her right hovering just over where her wand handle was sticking out of her jean pocket, just in case. Who knew what they’d find out there, especially with what they’d just read in the paper.

Opening the door, she cautiously stepped onto the porch, Maggie following close behind. She surveyed the neighborhood slowly, looking for anything that could be deemed abnormal and then, she heard it again, the same scream, only this time, accompanied by an almost squeaking noise and Lily turned in the direction of the noise reflexively. Her somewhat nervous expression however, quickly changed to that of amusement as she took in the sight of one, Sirius Black hopping around on the pogo stick Larry had given James earlier in the summer and suddenly, the squeaking sound she had heard before didn’t sound as menacing when paired with the child’s toy.

“So _you’re_ the one who was screaming?” Maggie accused, good naturedly.

“WEEEE!!!!” Sirius whooped, going particularly high in the air. He turned his head at the sound of Maggie’s voice. “LILY! MAGGIE! WAHOO! THIS THING IS SO AWESOME! YIPPEE!!!!”

James who had previously been observing Sirius from the patch of sidewalk just in front of his house, turned at Sirius’ acknowledgement of Lily and flashed a lopsided grin before making his way toward them.

“Hi.” Lily smiled, as James approached.

“He’s been at that thing for an hour now-- won’t let it go.” James said, jerking his thumb in Sirius’ direction.

“I don’t blame him-- looks like fun. Gosh! I haven’t been on a pogo stick since I was ten or so.” Maggie said, though still watching as Sirius pogo-ed up and down.

“You’re telling me,” James grinned. “but now he won’t even let me have a go-- and it’s _my_ pogo stick!”

Lily laughed at James who was looking positively ridiculous as he pouted.

“Well, at least it was only Sirius-- Maggie and I heard someone screaming and we thought…” Lily paused, trailing off her sentence. “Well, we thought it might have been something else-- one of the younger kids in trouble or something.” 

As if on cue, Sirius let out another whoop of glee.

James laughed. “I can see how that noise could have been startling-- must remember to put a silencing charm on him next time.”

Maggie’s head snapped toward James at his last comment.

“A _silencing charm_?” she asked. “you mean you can make it so people can’t talk? Oh man! What I wouldn’t give to be able to use one of those on that stupid Tiffany Waters back home.”

James looked a bit puzzled at Maggie’s excitement over a simple silencing charm that was arguably common knowledge. 

“She’s a muggle, remember?” Lily reminded, though Maggie ignored her comment.

“Can you really do one though? A silencing charm, I mean?” She asked.

“Sure,” James grinned lopsidedly. “It’s just a simple spell-- want to see?”

“Yes!” Maggie exclaimed excitedly, just as Lily responded with a flat “ _No.”_ of her own.

“ _James.”_ Lily said, just as he was pulling out his wand.

“Come on, Lily,” He said, flashing her a mischievous grin, though stopping in the midst of pulling out his mahogany wand. “No one’s around-- besides, it’ll be fun pulling a little prank on Sirius.” James reasoned.

Lily crossed her arms trying to stand her ground

“Yeah, come on, Lily, please? I’ve never seen _real_ magic before.” Maggie pleaded.

Lily looked at her cousin and then back to James.

“ _Please??”_ James said, flashing her another grin.

Lily rolled her eyes and huffed before breaking down. “Alright, _fine.”_ __

“Wicked.” James grinned, pulling out his wand and making a show of aiming it at Sirius.

__James grinned, pulling out his wand and making a show of aiming it at Sirius.

“But!” Lily added, tugging James’ wand hand down so it was now pointing at the sidewalk rather than at Sirius’ moving form. “If we get caught, James Potter…”

“If we get caught, which we won’t, but in the event that we do, I will take full responsibility.”

Lily grinned, satisfied. “Fire away, then, oh great one.” She said, releasing his arm.

James pointed his wand inconspicuously at Sirius and muttered the spell under his breath, A barely visible grayish light shot out of the tip of his wand and hit Sirius near the base of this throat.

Sirius was in mid whoop when his voice was suddenly completely shut off. He opened his mouth trying to make a sound-- any sound-- but failed miserably.

“So, so, _awesome!”_ Maggie exclaimed as she watched the effects of James’ handy spell work on Sirius.

Lily watched as Sirius opened his mouth, yet again attempting to speak while still jumping up and down on the pogo stick and joined James in laughing.

“Oh dear, that _is_ priceless!” Lily gasped.

James smiled. “A nice old fashioned silencing charm is always a good laugh even if it is a bit primitive by Marauder prank standards.”

Lily turned back to the still muted Sirius who just now had seemingly realized James had had something to do with his inability to speak. Her suspicions were confirmed as she watched Sirius mouth a word that by the way Lily had seen his lips move undoubtedly would have come out as ‘James’ if he had had the ability to talk.

“Uh oh.” Lily giggled. “ I think we’ve been discovered.”

James looked over just in time to see Sirius bouncing over toward them.

Lily saw it before any of the others did--- the large crack in the sidewalk that Sirius was pogo-ing right toward and two things happened almost simultaneously.

“Sirius! Watch out for the--” Lily screamed just as Sirius landed with the tip of the pogo stick on the uneven piece of sidewalk, causing him to go flying off the pogo stick and land with a loud _THUNK!_ into the bushes on Lily’s lawn.

Maggie and James gasped and the three of them ran over to where Sirius had landed.

“Oh! Sorry, Sirius! I tried to warn you…” Lily exclaimed as James held out a hand to pull Sirius out of the bushes which he gratefully took.

“That was quite a fall--- alright, Padfoot?” James asked worriedly.

“Yeah, nothing broken?” Maggie asked.

Sirius looked at the three expectant faces before him awaiting a response and he pointed to his mouth.

“ _Oh!_ ” James cried in realization. “Right, sorry, I forgot.” he muttered the counter spell with a wave of his wand.

“Thanks.” Sirius replied. “I think so.” he moved gingerly. “And I don’t think there’s anything broken, only I think I landed on something wet in there,”

He added, trying to examine the back of his forearm.

“That’s not water-- looks like you got a pretty nasty gash.” Maggie observed, watching as the blood trickled down his arm.

“Wow,” Sirius examined the gash thoughtfully. “didn’t think I fell _that_ hard.”

James watched the expression on the girl’s faces-- they were obviously surprised that Sirius wasn’t in more pain but James knew it was only because he’d had much worse injuries-- they both had experienced much worse injuries.

“Well,” Lily said, being the first to take action. “lets go inside and get that cleaned up, shall we?” She led the others back into her house and waited for all of them to enter before shutting the door.

“I’ll get the band-aids and the hydrogen peroxide,” Maggie offered. “Are they still in the medicine cabinet, Lily?”

“Oh, no need.” Lily replied.

She pulled out her wand and with an almost lazy swish over Sirius’ injured arm, the cut sealed, now looking as if it had been obtained weeks ago, rather than a few minutes ago.

“Or maybe not…” Maggie breathed as she admired her cousin’s spell work.

“Hey, thanks!” Sirius said gratefully. “We’ve got to remember that one, Prongs.”

“That’s pretty advanced.” James said, giving Lily and adoringly impressed expression. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“Last summer.” Lily explained pocketing her wand. “I took one of those independent study courses on healing-- thought it might come in handy someday.” 

“You’re amazing, you know that?” James breathed adoringly.

“Um, thanks.” Lily smiled, fighting a blush as she met his eyes.

Lily averted her gaze to Maggie and Sirius before her eyes had a chance to lock onto James.

“So now what?” Lily asked. “Obviously no more playing with the pogo stick for Sirius--”

“I resent that.” Sirius interjected.

“We could all watch that movie you and I were going to see before we went outside, Lily.” Maggie offered.

“A movie?” James replied eagerly, remembering the last time he’d watched one with Lily. “Are we going to the theater again? Can we get some more of those fizzy drinks?”

“She means watch one on the television.” Lily explained. “Surely you at least remember what a television is from muggle studies, James.”

James grinned at her sheepishly and Lily rolled her eyes good-naturedly, leading them to the living room where she showed James the VCR and explained how it worked,. It was with this that Lily fetched the bowl of popcorn she’d made earlier along with an assortment of drinks, that they introduced Sirius to the magic of the muggle cinema.

 

 

The finale credits rolled up on the screen-- similar to the ones that had appeared at the very beginning and once again, the action packed sounding musical score blared through the speakers.

Sirius and James had long since traded their positions on the couches for spots on the floor instead, their noses all but pressed to the television screen, despite Lily’s constant reminder that it would cause them to go blind one day if they kept sitting that close.

“That was bloody _brilliant!”_ Sirius exclaimed, finally pulling himself to sit cross legged.

“Are you _sure_ there’s no magic involved though? I mean, all those scenes with the explosions and the space ships!”

“Nope, nothing,” Maggie said. “Except good ole fashion movie magic.”

“So you _do_ use some sort of magic then!”

“No, it’s…what she means by ’movie magic’ is more like the special effects that go into the movie, not using actual magic like the kind we do with wands.” Lily clarified.

“Well, that Lucas fellow then, maybe he’s a wizard-- I mean how else could you think up something like all that,” Sirius gestured toward the screen. “Or someone like that Darth Vader fellow- he’s like the flipping Voldemort of ’Star Wars’!”

“I’m with you on that one, mate.” James said, chuckling slightly before becoming serious. “Did you hear? About the attacks?” he asked, more to Lily than the other two.

Lily nodded. “Around Putney, yeah?”

James nodded. “Second one this week.” he said gravely.

“Second?” Lily asked.

“First one was last week near Bristol-- you didn’t hear?”

Lily shook her head. “I just took out a subscription to the _Daily Prophet_ \-- first issue came today.”

“Well, it wasn’t as bad-- the Aurors got there before they had a chance to…you know…” James trailed off. “but they had to alter quite a few memories.”

“Wow, that’s horrible.” Lily said, her face turning somber.

“Sorry, kids, I couldn’t help over hearing.” Jeff Evans said from the doorway as he set down his briefcase. “Both of those attacks were headline news in the _London Times_ as well.”

“That’s not too surprising-- both Bristol and Putney are predominantly muggle areas.” Sirius said.

Jeff nodded, “But the news said the explosion in Putney late last night was due to a gas leakage at the local power plant.”

“They would say that,” Lily said. “How else are you going to explain an explosion that big was caused by magic?”

“Jeff? Is that you?” came Laurie Evans’ voice.

“In the living room with the kids, Laur!” Jeff called over his shoulder.

“Oh, good!” Laurie said, seeing that both Maggie and Lily were there. “You’re all here.”

“The kids were just telling me that those attacks-- you know the ones that happened in Bristol and Putney? They’re wizard attacks.” Jeff said.

“What?” Laurie said, sounding distressed. “But who would do such a thing?”

“It’s another Voldemort attack, mum.” Lily explained.

“Voldemort? Hang on-- I know that name-- wasn’t he the one your head master wrote home about?” 

Lily nodded, remembering the letter Professor Dumbledore had sent out specifically to all the muggle parents explaining the goings on in the wizarding world when Voldemort’s attacks had become more frequent.

“Were you going to say something, dear? Before we got you sidetracked?” Jeff asked.

“Hmm?” Laurie replied, lost in thought. “Oh yes. Actually, I came in to tell you we’ve got to go up to Nottingham for the night on Friday.”

“Why?” Jeff asked curiously.

“Wedding plans and such, but while we’re down there, the Dursley’s want us all to go over and visit Vernon’s grandparents-- they own a lovely bed and breakfast down there, apparently.”

Lily made a face of distaste. “Oh no, there is no _way_ you’re dragging me to a Dursley family reunion.”

“Oh come now, Lily don’t be so dramatic. The Dursleys- well, they aren’t that bad.” Laurie said.

“But they don’t _like_ me, mum.” Lily said.

“Oh, come now, why wouldn’t they like you, Lily dear?” Laurie said. “And even if that were the case, which it isn’t, you needn’t have to worry about coming along because we aren’t taking you or Maggie with us.”

“You aren’t?” Lily said, perking up considerably.

Laurie shook her head. “You’ve been so cooperative with all this wedding business I figured you’d deserve a break.”

Lily squealed with delight. “Oh, thank you, mum!” Lily said, hugging her mother quickly. “So we’re staying here until you get back on Saturday? Alone? Brilliant!”

“Gee, Lily, don’t go and miss us _too_ much while we’re gone.” Jeff said sardonically.

“Don’t get too excited, girls,” Laurie said, noting the awfully pleased expressions on both Lily and Maggie’s faces. “I didn’t exactly say you were staying _alone_ while we were gone, nor that you’d be staying here.”

“What?” Lily said, her face falling slightly.

“Oh come now, Lily-- what with both those attacks happening in such small towns? And then finding out that they were caused by wizards and not just your average psychos? Do you honestly think we’d let you stay home alone?” Laurie asked.

“But _mum!_ We’d be completely safe-- nothing _ever_ happens here.” 

“Lily, do you realize how close Putney is to London? It’s no more than forty minutes away-- just like we are.”

“Yeah, mum, but Putney’s clear in the opposite direction.”

“Lily, just drop it-- neither you nor Maggie are staying here alone-- your father and I would feel much better knowing you weren’t by yourselves, it’s done.”

“ _Fine._ ” Lily said, a bit disappointed. “Who are we staying with? The Barretts? Oh, please don’t say we’re staying with Aunt Beatrice, you know I can’t stand her cats!-- they’ve got it in for me, I swear.”

Laurie chuckled at her daughter’s statement-- heck, even Sirius, James, and Maggie had to laugh at the fact that Lily was positively serious about her aunt’s cats having something against her.

“No, and no,” Laurie said, denying both of Lily’s suggestions. “but really, dear those cats are the sweetest creatures--”

“Ha!” Lily laughed bitterly. “You say that now, mum-- just wait until the day they start hissing at _you.”_

“Well, don’t worry, you won’t be staying with Aunt Beatrice-- she’s out of town until the wedding anyway.” 

“But then, who are we staying with?” Lily pondered. Aside from Aunt Beatrice, they didn’t have any closer relatives.

“Actually, you’ll be staying just next door.” Laurie said, almost as if trying to see how her words would weigh on Lily.

Both James and Sirius perked up at Laurie’s words.

“Next door?” Lily echoed.

“Yes, with the Potters.” Laurie elaborated. “I already talked it over with Moira and David-- they said they’d be happy to have you for the night.”

Laurie left soon after that, Jeff hot on her heels, in pursuit of the train schedule with intentions of booking tickets to Nottingham for Friday, but not before reminding Lily and Maggie to pull out the extra sleeping bags from the attic.

“So I guess we’re sleeping over on Friday.” Lily said conversationally to James as they headed toward the attic to pull out the sleeping bags. “Should be fun, right?”

__

Interesting James thought, might have been a better word to describe what Friday night might be like. 

__

"Yeah," James said, instead, grinning brightly. "Should be loads of fun."


	13. Driving Lessons

**Chapter 13:** Driving Lessons

 

 

“Don’t worry-- we’ll take good care of the girls while you two are gone.” Moira assured.

 

“Oh, I know you will-- thanks so much, Moira-- you’re a lifesaver, really, and Jeff and I will feel much better knowing they aren’t home alone.” Laurie said.

Moira nodded. “Have fun you two-- we’ll see you on Saturday morning.”

“Thanks.” Jeff smiled brightly. “You girls be good for Moira and David, yeah?”

“We will, Uncle Jeff, don’t worry!” Maggie smiled as she gave him a one armed hug. Lily did the same and then, Laurie and Jeff were off.

The door closed behind them and Moira turned to face the two girls, clasping her hands together.

“Well, let’s get you girls upstairs-- I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping for the night and you can set your bags down.” 

Lily and Maggie smiled and followed Moira upstairs to a spare bedroom, decorated in a warm yellow color. Doing some fancy spell work, Moira quickly transfigured a spare pillow into an extra bed.

“Right, that’s settled.” Moira said, pocketing her wand. “ready to head down to dinner, girls? I expect David and the boys should be just about finished.”

“ _James_ and _Sirius_ are cooking dinner?” Lily asked, slightly frightened. “No offense to either of them of course, but _should_ we be scared?”

Moira laughed good naturedly. “I’m not entirely sure, actually, but _shhh!_ don’t tell David that-- he’s been harping on me all day about not being supportive of his deciding to cook the muggle way tonight.” she said, leading the way out of the room and downstairs.

Lily chuckled slightly.

“So what exactly is on the menu, then?” Maggie inquired.

“I’ll have you know it was you, Maggie who inspired the menu, or at least David’s decision to do something called barbequing-- according to David, it’s quite common where you’re from.”

“ _Barbequing_?” Maggie repeated, unable to hide the slight nervousness that tinged her words.

“Yes, but why do you sound so frazzled at the thought, dear?” Moira asked curiously.

“ _Erm…_ Mrs. Potter, do you by any chance know what barbequing consists of?” Maggie asked carefully.

“No, not exactly…” Moira said cautiously.

“ _Well…_ ” Maggie said, going into detail of exactly what the definition of barbequing was.

After her definition had sunk in, the pigment of Moira’s skin looked as if it had drained slightly of it’s colour.

“Oh dear…” She replied faintly, resting her hand on her forehead as if taking her temperature. “My garden! The house! Oh dear, they’ll burn the patio down!”

And with that, Moira was all but flying down the stairs, calling her husband’s name warningly as she went.

Maggie and Lily exchanged looks before bounding down the stairs after her. It was quite easy to find the kitchen from upstairs, firstly because the house was not overly large and secondly because the rooms in the Potter house were laid out identically to those in Lily’s.

“David Harold Potter! When I gave you permission to cook the muggle way tonight you did _not_ specify that you’d be cooking over an _open fire_ near our house!” Moira accused. “What were you _thinking_?!--”

Lily and Maggie got to the kitchen just in time to watch Moira Potter scold her husband and though she was a good head shorter than her husband, her size made her no less intimidating.

“-- you could have burned the house down! You could have burned my poppies!”

“But nothing, happened, darling!” David said, carefully. “We were completely safe, besides, if the fire had gotten out of control, you don’t think I could have used my wand to put it out? Huh?”

David sent his wife a grin which, in Lily’s opinion, was scarily identical to James’.

“I guess so,” Moira admitted begrudgingly, her body language slipping from the tense angered stance she had originally taken. “I just wish you’d told me is all-- the situation could have been dangerous.”

“I know darling, and I’m sorry.” David said, taking his wife’s hand. “I promise next time I decide to take part in seemingly dangerous muggle acts, I will do my best to inform you to a fuller extent, now come help me set the table.”

“Could have been dangerous?” James said, in a low voice after his parents had left the room. 

“Why do I sense that there was something your dad didn’t inform your mum of?” Lily asked curiously.

“Uh oh, do we even want to know?” Maggie asked.

“Sirius had a little accident with the kerosene--” James started.

“How was I supposed to know how flammable that stuff was? I didn’t expect the fire to burst that far up into the air.” Sirius whispered so as not to let Moira hear.

“Mother of Merlin!” Lily said almost feeling herself go pale at the thought.

“Don’t worry, like dad said-- nothing happened. He was able to put it out before any major damage occurred.”

“ _Major damage_? James, you could have burned the house down!” Lily whispered sharply.

“Yes, Lily darling, we know, Moira’s just informed us of that,” Sirius said, patting her on the shoulder. “So rather than running the risk of sounding like a broken record, let’s instead retire to the dining room and have dinner instead.”

“And yes,” Sirius said, cutting Lily off as she opened her mouth to say something else. “I will explain to you exactly how I know what a record is, although I must say, I’m slightly hurt at the fact that just because James here doesn’t pay attention in Muggle Studies, you’d venture to think _I_ didn’t pay attention either.”

Lily could have responded, but instead, settled for shutting her mouth and allowing Sirius to steer her into the next room while pondering about the slightly frightening thought of Sirius Black, of all people, knowing her well enough to know what she was about to say.

Dinner was a pleasant affair, to say the least and the food, with it’s charred barbeque look turned out to be surprisingly good despite Lily’s previous doubt. When everyone had finished dinner, both James and Sirius helped Moira clear the dishes from the table and bring them to the kitchen. They returned with dessert plates and forks in hand; Moira followed with a large treacle tart presented on a sliver colored platter. 

“That treacle tart looks lovely, dear.” David said appreciatively.

Moira smiled, obviously pleased at the compliment and began serving dessert.

“Hello? _Hello?_ Is anyone there? David? Moira?”

Moira froze in the act of passing out treacle tart and gave a fleeting glance at her husband.

“The fireplace-” David said quickly as they both ran to the living room.

A questioning glance crossed Lily’s features but she had no time to wonder why Mr. and Mrs. Potter had rushed to the living room before James was urging them to follow his parents.

In the living room, Moira and David were kneeled before the fireplace where the head of a rather nervous looking man sat bobbing up and down in the embers.

“Yes! As quickly as you can David, and Moira, you’d better get over to St. Mungo’s-- they’ll need all the help they can get if this goes badly.”

“Yes, we’ll apparate right away and thank you!”

There was a particularly large crackling sound and in the blink of an eye, the man’s head was gone.

“Mum, what’s happened?” James asked worriedly. 

“There’s been another attack,” David answered instead as he scurried to the hall closet to get his cloak. “Moody thinks it could get out of hand if we don’t get down there now-- that’s why he had Sloat contact us via floo.”

“Dear, have you seen my work robes?” Moira asked, poking furtively through the closet.

“On the coat rack in the kitchen, love.” David said, fastening the clasps and following her into the kitchen. Naturally, James, Sirius, Lily, and Maggie followed as well.

Moira made a triumphant sound when she found her lime green robes and threw them on quickly.

“Oh, I’m so sorry dears!” Moira said, when she turned to face them. “I know we told your parents, Lily that we’d keep an eye out for you both tonight but--”

“It’s alright, they’ll understand-- this is important,” Lily said, cutting her off. “just go and take care of--” Lily paused, not knowing how to finish her statement. “take care of everyone.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Mrs. Potter-- we’ll take care of each other,” Maggie quipped. “And we’ll tidy up the kitchen as well.”

Moira smiled at the teens in front of her. “That sounds lovely dear, but tidying up the kitchen? Don’t be silly, you’re a guest, and besides, it’ll be much easier if I just…” and with a quick sweeping wave of her wand, the kitchen was meticulously clean once more.

“Have I told you how much I _love_ magic, Lily?” Maggie said, awed.

“Right, all set, dear?” David Potter asked, sweeping into the kitchen, and grabbing a spatula from a nearby drawer; he tapped it three times with his wand and it glowed a soft blue color and trembled slightly before the glow faded and the kitchen utensil remained seemingly unchanged. “You’ve got about a minute before the portkey activates.”

“Yes, just about ready, thank you, darling.” Moira said, grabbing the spatula in her other hand on one side, while David held onto the other. 

“We’ll be back soon, now-- behave and take care of each other.” Moira chided. “Oh, and in case there’s an emergency or you’re in mortal danger--”

“Yes, mum, we know-- floo directly to the safety house.” James said, cutting his mother off.

Moira smiled, slightly reassured.

“Be careful mum, dad.” James said.

“We’ll see you soon, son.” David Potter said, in an assured tone before the pair were engulfed in a bright light and when the light faded out, they had vanished.

“Do you really have a safe house?” Lily asked curiously.

“Yeah,” James grinned. “Grandpa Potter set it up during the 1940s when the dark wizard Grindewald was trying to conquer Europe. My parents never thought we’d need to use it but they kept it anyway after he passed and well…I guess now, what with all the attacks and Voldemort rising so quickly, they feel a bit more secured knowing we have somewhere safe to go in case…” James let his sentence trail off.

“Wow.” Said Lily, obviously impressed. “So where is this safe house, anyway?”

“Well, if I told you where it was, that would defeat the purpose of having a hidden safe house now wouldn’t it?” James grinned, sending Lily a wink as well, before the four of them retired to the living room. 

An uneventful hour passed where Maggie tried but failed miserably to convince Lily to let them play the muggle game ‘Twister.’ Lily argued that the game was first of all potentially harmful to your body and secondly that they didn’t have a ‘Twister’ mat anywhere even remotely nearby to play with anyway. Maggie however, secretly thought Lily didn’t want to play out of fear that she would have most likely ended up twisted in a rather compromising position with a certain messy haired bespectacled boy before the game was over. Instead of arguing however, Maggie gave up, and after five minutes of silence, suddenly propped herself up by one arm from her position on the floor.

“Do you know what would be really good right about now? Some ice cream…” she said, almost as if she were thinking out loud.

“Ooh, ice cream…”Sirius thought. “a sundae from Florean Fortescues’-- a strawberry and peanut butter sundae-- that’d be nice…”

“Yeah, except Florean Fortescues’ is all the way in Diagon Alley.” James pointed out.  
“Thank you so much, Prongs-- how lovely of you to burst my bubble…” Sirius said, dryly.

“If it’ll cheer you up, we might have some in the freezer…” James commented.

“ _Really?”_ Maggie and Sirius asked excitedly, making a mad dash to the kitchen.

Lily shrugged, smiling slightly and tilted her head in the direction of the kitchen, motioning that she and James should follow.

“Oh, bugger.” Sirius said, poking around through the freezer. “There’s no ice cream!”

“Oops!” James grinned sheepishly. “Could have sworn we had some…we must have ate it all, then.”

Sirius closed the freezer, looking slightly put out while Maggie simply leaned on the counter, putting a finger to her chin as if in thought.

“No big deal,” She said, finally. “We’ll just go get some.”

“Go get ice cream?” Lily asked. “Maggie, the closest store is in town-- that’s a half hour by foot-- there’s no way we’re walking all the way over there.”

“Oh, my dear cousin,” Maggie said, patting Lily on the shoulder. “I didn’t say we _had_ to walk…”

“So you want to take the bus downtown?” James mused. “We could do that, couldn’t we?”

“Bus stops running at eight.” Lily brushed off with a wave of her hand.

“Really?” Sirius asked curiously. 

“That’s what happens when you live in a small town…” Lily grinned.

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but I wasn’t exactly thinking of taking the bus either,” Maggie said, a grin forming on her lips. “ _I_ was thinking more along the lines of driving down.”

“With what?” Lily laughed, as if the suggestion was the craziest in the world. “First off, my parents took our car, in case you’ve forgotten, and secondly, I _can’t_ drive.”

“Whaddaya mean you can’t drive?” Maggie asked, looking at Lily as if she had just grown an extra head.

“I mean I never learned how… you can’t drive here till you’re seventeen anyway and I never felt the need to learn after I got into Hogwarts.”

Maggie’s mouth hung open still, even after Lily’s explanation. 

“And do either of you two know how to drive?” she asked, turning to face Sirius and James who shook their heads promptly. “Holy crow, are you serious? Seventeen and neither of you drive a car?”

“Cars are muggle contraptions-- besides, being wizards, we’ve got ulterior means of getting around.” James explained.

“Floo powder and side apparation are quite nifty when you’re underage.” Sirius piped in.

“That’s absolutely crazy…Christ, I’ll have been driving for a year and a half in August.”

“Well, that’s lovely and all,” Lily said. “but even if we did want to drive to get ice cream, we still don’t’ have a car, Maggie.”

“Actually…” James said, an idea having obviously come to mind.

“My dad hardly ever drives it.” James said, leading them into the garage.

“Oh, and if he never drives it, don’t you think he’d find it quite suspicious if he comes to check on it and there are an extra few kilometers registered on the car, hmm?” Lily pointed out, as soon as the rest of them had arrived in the dark room.

“You can actually figure out how many kilometers are on a car?” James asked, curiously.

“Of course, that’s what the odometer’s for, smart one.” Lily said. When all she received was a blank look from James, she elaborated her explanation. “The little row of numbers just underneath the thing that tells you how fast you’re going? Surely you‘ve noticed that that number doesn‘t just stay the same all the time.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know _how_ to drive.” Sirius pointed out.

“I don’t,” Lily said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to drive figuratively speaking.”

“Aaah.” Sirius said, grinning.

“So, where’s the car?” Maggie asked.

“Right here.” James said, pulling a taupe colored tarp off a rather large object to reveal a sleek, red sports car. The same shiny red car, in fact, that Lilly had seen the day the Potters had moved in, parked just on the driveway.

Lily’s mouth hung open.

“James, that’s a 1950s Austin Healey-- there is NO way we are driving _that!_ Your dad would kill us!”

“A 1950s _what?”_ Sirius asked confused.

“A _Healey”_ Lily repeated, slightly exasperated.

“She means the car make, I’m guessing…?” James said.

“ _Exactly._ Do you know-- _that_ car is estimated to be worth over fifteen thousand pounds within the next few decades-- especially if your dad keeps it in this condition.” Lily exclaimed.

Sirius gave her a rather odd look, “Out of curiosity, why exactly do you know so much about cars?”

“I don’t-- I only know about classic cars.” Lily explained. “And my grandpa taught me-- before he died-- cars were one of his many hobbies-- thought I must say, I never thought I retained that much of the information he taught me.”

“Interesting, but really, Lily, it’s just a car and besides nothing’s going to happen, right, James?”

“Right.” James confirmed.

“ _Just_ a car? Are you kidding? It’s a classic and we’re _not_ driving it.” Lily said, stomping her foot to enhance her point. “C-can’t we just take your other car? I thought you had a station wagon as well.” 

“We do,” James verified. “But my mum’s station wagon is in the shop-- something about changing the plugs or whatever cars are made out of.”

“Fine, if you’re so opposed of going out to get ice cream, Lily, _you_ stay here,” Sirius said pointing to the spot on the ground. “and James, Maggie, and I will go.”

Sirius opened the passenger’s side door and sliding into the front seat.

“Come on, James, aren’t you coming?” Sirius asked. “It’ll be fun…”

James was torn. On one hand, taking his dad’s old sports car out for a spin sounded like a barrel of fun but on the other, he didn’t want to agitate Lily. In the end however, it was Sirius’ mischievous grin that let the Marauder side of him win and before he knew it he had hopped into the back seat, grinning widely at the prospect of adventure.

“Maggie?” Sirius asked.

Maggie shrugged her shoulders, giving Lily a ‘what can I do?’ sort of look. “No one else can drive.” she reasoned, looking at Lily’s obvious dislike of taking the car out. “besides, like Sirius said, it’ll be fun.”

“Forget about Lily, Maggie,” Sirius said, as he leaned over and opened the driver’s door for her. “she’s going to miss out on all the fun and will be bored out of her mind waiting for us to return from the ice cream store.”

Maggie shrugged again before getting into the car. 

“Keys?” she asked, putting her palm out.

James dropped the keys into her hand.

Maggie put the keys in the ignition and the car purred to life, a rumbling sound echoing in the dimly lit garage.

“We’re turning on the car…” Sirius said as he looked at Lily, giving her a play-by-play. “we’re opening the garage door…”

The garage door opened at the click of a button. “And we’re going to drive away now…bye, Lily, see you when we get back--”

Maggie was just about to let go of the break when Lily’s voice stopped her.

“Okay, okay, wait!”

“Change your mind so soon, Lily dear?” Sirius asked innocently, giving her a knowing look.

“I want to make it perfectly clear that I am getting into this car with you lot out of protest AND to make sure that you three” She said, pointing at each of them in turn. “don’t do something stupid while you’re out there wreaking havoc on the road.”

“Alright, whatever you say, Lily.” Maggie said, grinning widely.

Lily hoisted herself up and over to sit in the back seat next to James and behind Sirius where she promptly secured her seat belt.

“Dear Merlin help me,” she muttered before smoothing out her hair and speaking to the rest of them. “Did everyone put on their seat belts? And Maggie you’re sure you know how to drive this thing?”

“Of course--”

“You know how to drive a stick shift?” Lily asked.

“In theory,” Maggie said, and before Lily had time to respond, she stomped on the gas pedal and was quite surprised that the car simply gave a loud roar and stayed completely still.

“Oops!” Maggie exclaimed, laughing sheepishly. “Forgot to let go of the clutch-- alright, here we go, for real this time.”

“Bloody hell…save me please.” Lily muttered, while praying to any unknown higher being who might happen to be listening, before ceremoniously dropping her head momentarily onto James’ shoulder, effectively shielding her eyes.

When she felt the car turn out of the driveway and realized they had not crashed into anything in the process, Lily lifted her head, opening her eyes slowly only to meet the site of James’ eyes which held a slightly amused look.

“See?” James grinned. “Nothing to be worried about…give Maggie a little more credit-- she said she could drive.”

“Yeah, give me a little more credit.” Maggie said, good naturedly, meeting Lily’s eyes through the rearview mirror. “Honestly though, Lils. Did you really not think I’d be able to drive this thing?”

“Honestly?” Lily asked, “don’t be mad, but no.”

“Gee, thanks.” Maggie said, sardonically.

“You weren’t supposed to get mad.” Lily pointed out.

“I’m not-- I’m only joking.” Maggie smiled impishly before directing her attention to the road ahead.

The ride was slightly bumpy and jerky to say the least, but Lily knew it was because Maggie had never actually driven anything except for an automatic car and therefore kept mixing up the gear shifts and when she was supposed to change them. Finally however, they reached the downtown district which, for a Friday night, was not as full as Lily was expecting it to be.

“Alright, we’re here-- the ice cream shop is just down that street so let’s hurry up and get the ice cream you just _had_ to have and get back home.”

“Why are you so paranoid, Lily? We got here in one piece, didn’t we? I told you I was a good driver, so just relax.” Maggie said.

“No, it’s not that-- Maggie, this is a small town, almost everyone knows everyone else and if anyone who knows my family sees me out here and just so happens to mention it to my parents…well, I don’t expect they’ll be to pleased especially since we weren’t supposed to leave the Potter house.” Lily pointed out.

“Hmm…” Maggie thought, seeing Lily‘s point. “Point taken. Alright, boys, you heard the lady, let’s hurry it up!”

They walked toward the ice cream shop, stopping shortly only to drag Sirius away from a shiny black motorcycle on the side of the road, displaying a “For Sale” sign that hung between the two handles.

“Come on, I’ve got enough gold! Uncle Alphard left me more than enough!” Sirius cried.

“Well, I don’t think your Uncle Alphard would have wanted you to spend all that on a motorcycle,” Lily said briskly. “besides, you’d need muggle money to buy that, not wizard’s gold.”

James dragged Sirius by the arm toward the ice cream parlor and Sirius waved sadly at the motorcycle.

“I’ll be back for you one day…” he said melodramatically as he blew a kiss toward it, causing both Lily and Maggie to roll their eyes, although, they noticed that Sirius perked up and seemed to have forgotten about the motorcycle as soon as he had a rather large ice cream cone packed with three heaping scoops of ice cream in his hand.

The road was dark before them as Maggie drove them back to the Potter house, but for the few lamp posts that were in Lily’s opinion, not very strategically placed along the side of the road.

Lily could tell she was a great deal more confident and comfortable driving the old car from the speed at which they were going.

“Are you _sure_ you don’t want me to hold that while you’re driving?” Lily asked, for the umpteenth time, motioning to Maggie’s half eaten ice cream.

“ _Yes_ , Lily, it’s fine-- don’t worry.” She said, turning her head to look back at Lily who was seated in the back seat, diagonally from her.

“Alright, alright-- just, just keep your eyes on the--”

“Maggie, watch out!” Sirius yelled.

It was then, that Lily noticed a pair of rather large headlights coming directly toward them at a rather alarming pace.

The sharp sound of the truck’s horn, honking seemed to reverberate onto the car itself as the distance between their rather small car and the truck’s very large front bumper quickly dissipated and almost as if it were an automatic reaction, Lily grabbed onto James’ arm, holding it in a vice grip as if somehow, that would save her from being run over. She heard James swear loudly, as Maggie shrieked, jerking the steering wheel roughly to the left and stopping just short of hitting a rather large oak tree.

The truck, sped by, the sound of it’s horn slowly fading into the darkness.

“Bloody _hell!”_ Sirius screamed, still holding onto the dashboard for dear life.

“What was that all about?” James asked, his voice strangely quiet for someone who had been quite close to getting into a car crash.

“She drove on the wrong side of the road.” Lily said, still gasping for air, her hands shaking slightly, unable to remove them from where she was strongly clinging to James‘ arm. “I-in America, they drive on the other side.”

James, noting this, pulled Lily’s hands off of his arm and held them tightly in his own, willing her to stop shaking, though, Lily hardly seemed to notice he was doing this.

“That’s barking _mad.”_ Sirius exhaled.

“I’m sorry!” Maggie exclaimed, still trying to catch her breath. “I was on autopilot-- I forgot!”

“Maggie, you just drove all the way downtown! Surely you’d have noticed what side of the road you were driving on!” Lily exclaimed.

“There were no other cars on the road at the time!” Maggie exclaimed, breathing in short ragged breaths. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean--- the car’s alright, isn’t it?”

“The _car_?! Bugger the car, Mags! I just want to make sure that you’re okay!” Lily said, still slightly hysteric from the shock. “Everyone’s okay, right? Boys?”

“Yep, I’m fine, you, James?” Sirius asked.

“Fine.” James confirmed.

“Good.” Lily said, letting out a deep breath as she extracted her hands from in between James‘ larger ones. “Alright, Maggie-- turn on the car and let’s get back-- just take it slowly, yeah?”

“Right.” Maggie said, her hands shaking as she turned the car on and drove them slowly back home.

The arrived back to the Potter’s house, Maggie being sure to park the car exactly as they had found it while Sirius and James got out and inspected the car for any major damage.

“Well?” Lily asked anxiously.

“Everything seems to be alright…” James said.

“Except…?” Lily asked, sensing there was a little something off.

“Well, except for the fact that Maggie dropped her ice cream cone on the seat, here.” James pointed at the offending stain.

“Oh,” Lily breathed a sigh of relief. “well, that, fortunately can be fixed-- _Scourgify.”_

With a flick of her wand, the stain and the ice cream cone had vanished, leaving the cream colored leather seats to their original state and James threw the tarp over the car once more before the four made their way back up into the living room once more.

“So what should we do now?” Sirius asked expectantly.

“What should we _do?_ ” Lily asked. “Well, it’s ten o’clock therefore, I vote-- no I _insist_ that we all get to bed this instant before your parents get home, James. I think we’ve had enough excitement for one evening.”

And with that, she trudged the boys and Maggie up stairs, making sure they were all going to their respective bedrooms.

“Aren’t you going to give us a kiss and tuck us into bed, as well, _mummy?_ ” Sirius said sarcastically.

Before ducking into his room and shutting the door just before the rolled up news paper Lily had grabbed from the hall table and carefully aimed in his direction had the chance to hit him in the head.

The news paper landed with a _Thunk!_ on the ground and Lily could hear Sirius laughing hysterically behind the door of his bedroom.

Heaving a sigh, she turned, bidding James goodnight before following Maggie in to the guest bedroom where they were sleeping for the night.

******

Lily turned on her side once more-- it had been more than an hour since she had sent everyone to bed, but despite insisting on an early bedtime, she herself, could not will her body to go to sleep. She sighed, rubbing her eyes slightly, listening to the sound of Maggie’s faint snoring before restlessly tossing the blankets off of her and quietly getting out of bed.

If she wasn’t going to be able to sleep, Lily figured she may as well take advantage of the time and finish up the Astronomy homework she had been putting off since the start of the summer. And so, pulling out the workbook from her knapsack, she trudged downstairs and out to the Potter’s backyard.

Lily was deep in thought almost an hour later, when the sound of James’ voice caused her to turn around.

“Hey,” he said simply.

She smiled at him warmly and watched as he walked toward her, carrying a bundle in his right arm. 

“I brought you this,” James said, holding out a blanket to her. “It’s getting a bit cold and I thought you might want it.”

“Thanks,” Lily said, thinking the gesture to be awfully kind as she laid the blanket out over her crossed legs. “how’d you know I was out here?”

“You left the backdoor opened,” James said simply. “It’s a bit late though, what are you doing out here?”

Lily held up a thin spiral notebook and a few sheets of paper. 

“I’ve been neglecting Professor Sinistra’s homework all holiday” Lily said rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “If I don’t get it done now, I’ll never finish by start of term.”

“Fair enough,” James grinned.

“What about you?” Lily asked. “You’re up pretty late yourself, James”

“Couldn’t sleep I guess- just came downstairs for a glass of water,” James shrugged. “Then I saw you out here, and well, I couldn’t very well let you freeze to death.” he said, motioning to the blanket now draped over Lily’s legs.

“That’s sweet.” Lily grinned.

“It looks like you’re almost done though,” James ventured, sitting himself down next to Lily and leaning over her shoulder to look at her star charts.

Lily felt a fine trail of goose bumps forming across her arms and knew, that however much she would have liked it to be true, they had _not_ been produced by the crisp summer night’s air.

“Uh huh-- I’ve just got to write up that summary she wants us to do-- you know the one where we talk about the changes we’ve seen since the last time we had class and whenever we decided to observe the night sky?” Lily said, snapping the booklet shut and setting it aside.

James nodded in recognition before averting his gaze to the inky black sky above.

“Well, you sure picked a good day for Astronomy homework-- the sky’s spotless,”

Lily said nothing but averted her eyes to the heavens above as well, spreading out the blanket so it covered James as well.

A comfortable silence settled over the pair and Lily reveled in the sheer peacefulness of it all.

“Hey Lily?” James asked, breaking the silence.

“Hmm?” Lily replied, not bothering to face him.

“Do you remember the last time we did this? Looked at the stars, I mean?”

“Yes,” Lily said, grinning up at him. “Sirius broke my porch swing and almost broke two of my ribs when he landed on my stomach.”

James grinned back, halfheartedly, failing from fully burying the feeling of disappointment at the fact that Lily had not exactly answered the way he’d wanted her to. He could have just left it at that-- that would have been the smart thing to do, the more reasonable side of him argued. But something within him-- something stronger, urged him to probe Lily further.

“Is that all you remember?” James finally asked, his voice softer than it had been before.

Lily was quite for a moment before responding with an almost hesitant, “No.”

“Oh…” James let the word trail off. “Any recollections of say, what happened before Sirius made his spectacular entrance?”

Lily paused, James’ question leaving her slightly speechless-- remember? How could she forget? And instantly flashes of that evening came pouring through her mind. Flashes of James playing with her hair, stroking her cheek, the feel of his rough but smooth finger tips tracing her jaw, and a rather short, fleeting image of James slowly moving closer and closer before…

“Possibly,” Lily replied finally, the single word tumbling almost carefully from her lips. She paused, knowing her answer would affect so much of what would result of this conversation. 

“But at the moment, I can’t seem to recall,” the rational part of her lied, deciding it still wanted to live in denial. Denial, in Lily’s eyes was safe-- the safest rout to take at this point at least-- safe and familiar, that’s what denial was. But technically, Lily convinced herself, it wasn’t denial at all, because who knew for sure what would have happened if Sirius hadn’t so gracefully entered at that specific point?

Lily watched James try but fail miserably at hiding the disappointment on his features. His disappointment tugged at her heart enough for her to elaborate on her last statement.

“But I’ll make sure to let you know when I do remember.” Lily said, trying to sound hopeful and encouraging. James gave a half smile and feeling slightly better herself, Lily stood up and touched his shoulder lightly.

“Time for bed,” she said, walking toward the Potter house, dragging the blanket slightly behind her. Lily had not gone more than five steps before she turned around, realizing James was still sitting on the grass where she had left him. “well, aren’t you coming?”

James turned around at her question.  
“What, to bed with you?” James asked. He should have known his response would come out sounding funny-- there was really no way of answering Lily’s question without his response coming out sounding as if it could have a double meaning. 

Lily blushed slightly, knowing James hadn’t meant his response to come out sounding the way it did, but unable to stop her mind from wandering to the not so innocent meaning those words could have meant.

“Well, obviously not to _your_ bed with you-- I would never!-- not that I’d never-- I mean, that’s not to that I wouldn’t _want_ to but…Oh bugger.” James stopped rambling, figuring if he just stopped talking, he couldn’t embarrass himself even more than he already had.

“Right,” Lily said, giving an embarrassed chuckle. “No worries, I get it.”

“Good,” James said, laughing nervously as the pink in his cheeks slowly vanished.

“Come on then, let’s go inside- it is rather cold out.” Lily said, picking up the blanket she had been dragging and leading the way back toward the Potter house.

James nodded, following Lily inside where he walked her to the guest room before trudging off to his own room. 

Since the Potters had moved in next door to the Evans’, as far as James was concerned, he had not spent a single dull moment in the company of one, Lily Evans, and spending a whole evening with her in the form of a sleepover, he now knew, was no exception.

 

A Note About Cars:

I know absolutely nothing about them-- what I learned for this chapter, I learned from my daddy who was nice enough to deal with all the badgering round about questions I was asking him about fifties style cars. If you're interested in seeing the Austin Healey that was my inspiration for this chapter, here's the link:

**http://www.santiagosc.com/Pictures%20of%20Cars%20for%20Sale/sold%20cars/red%20white%20healey.jpg**   


 


	14. The Truth About Things Within Reach

 

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Chapter 14 : The Truth About Things Within Reach

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__

She was running through the forest again and she was frightened. Tears streaming down her face with no signs of stopping. The darkness of the woods grew deeper and deeper as she wandered aimlessly, her heart growing heavier as if telling her to give up now. 

__

What was the point anymore? She asked herself.

__

Lily collapsed on the ground, her back against the stump of a rather large tree, burying her head in her hands. A light sound of twigs being stepped on caused her to gasp in shock and when she looked up again, there it was. A brilliant stag -- the same one as before and it’s mere presence told her to keep going.

__

She stood, tears stopping momentarily and took a step toward the almost too beautiful creature. She lifted a hand tentatively and the stag inclined his head slightly as she stepped forward to stroke it between it’s antlers. 

__

She was an inch away as her hand moved hesitantly forward, about to touch the seemingly soft fur of it’s head…

__

Lily stumbled and her body shook unwillingly, the stag as well as the wood around her blurring. She strained to focus her attention, wanting this world to come into focus again but no sooner did she try to fight the overcoming urge to wake, did she feel the surprisingly familiar sensation of falling overcome her. 

__

The stag disappeared and she was plunged into momentary darkness before Lily reflexively opened her eyes.

It was then that she found the source of the shaking-- a hand on her shoulder. She allowed her eyes to trail span of the foreign hand until she was looking up at the bright face of James Potter.

“Good morning.” James grinned.

“Hi.” Lily replied, her voice soft as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

She looked around the room, noting for the first time the faint glow seeping through the cracks in the curtains, signifying it was morning and that Maggie was not in her bed.

“She’s downstairs playing Exploding Snap-- Sirius is teaching her-- but mum said to let you sleep in for a bit. She wants you to have some breakfast before your parents get home, though.” James added before Lily could ask.

“How late is it?” she asked.

“Only ten,” 

Lily nodded, looking slightly scatterbrained as she stared off in the direction of the opposite wall.

She looked at James, who had said something she hadn’t caught as her mind wandered.

“Sorry, didn’t catch that.” Lily said, slightly embarrassed.

“So, breakfast…?” James repeated.

“Sure, that sounds great.” Lily said, smiling half heartedly.

Lily furrowed her brow, her mind still on the dream she had been forcefully woken from but minutes ago.

“Do you ever…? I mean…” Lily said out loud suddenly.

James, who was about to leave so she could get dressed, stopped at the door. 

“Do I ever what?” he asked, walking back toward her.

“Do you ever have reoccurring dreams when you sleep?” She asked, picking at a loose thread on the comforter.

“You mean like have a dream more than once?” James asked, taking a seat on the bed.

Lily nodded.

“I’m not sure,” James said, finally after thinking a moment. “I might have, but not so recently that I remember….why do you ask?”

“It’s nothing really,” Lily said, now feeling slightly stupid for dwelling on the subject. “I just keep having this dream-- it’s different, but it’s the same every time…the same scenery, the same emotions, the same…”

James watched her eyebrows knit together in thought, waiting for Lily to elaborate on her own. 

“You know what?” Lily said, finally. “It’s nothing-- I’m probably just dwelling too far into it, I mean, it’s just a dream, right?”

“If you say so.” James said, casually. “Are you _sure_ you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Yeah, I’m sure…like I said, I’m just being silly about it.” Lily nodded as if telling James to forget she’d ever brought up.

“Alright,” James said, before standing up. “I’ll meet you downstairs, yeah? I expect you’ll want to change and I don’t think you’ll let me stay for _that_ momentous occasion.” he said, suggestively.

“Too right, you are, Mr. Potter.” Lily said, flinging a throw pillow at him.

James caught it, tossing it back, giving her one last grin before leaving Lily to get ready.

-

The morning passed in a frenzy. Mrs. Potter whipped up some pancakes and eggs from scratch and before Lily and Maggie knew it, the doorbell had rung signalling Mr and Mrs Evans’ return. By the time Lily had said her goodbyes and thanked the Potters for letting them stay over, she had forgotten about the dream entirely.

\-----

With the entire family in wedding overload, the next couple of days passed in a frenzy of sample wedding cakes, taffeta swatches, and fresh flowers. Lots and lots of fresh flowers because apparently according Mrs. Dursley, the centre piece on the tables alone could make or break even the most prestigious weddings. And before Lily knew it, the eve before the wedding had arrived. Petunia’s friends had woken her up at the ungodly hour of five in the morning with the intentions of taking the term ‘hen night’ to a whole new level. Petunia had begrudgingly invited Lily along, on her mother’s orders, of course, but Lily had politely declined-- any excuse to get away from Petunia was graciously accepted as the wedding had if possible caused her _darling_ sister to become even more uptight than usual. Maggie had also opted to stay behind though putting Petunia aside, Lily figured it was more for the sake of being able to snag a few more precious hours of sleep before having to get up. 

And this, was yet another strike against big weddings that Lily was mentally keeping track of as she sat rather grumpily at the kitchen table at nine o’clock, dreading the arrival of Mrs. Barbara Dursley while swearing on everything materialistic yet valuable thing she owned that when she got married, her wedding would be a simple affair.

Lily watched her mother bustle about the kitchen, pulling baking ingredients out from the pantries and cupboards because apparently it wasn’t enough that they were entertaining over a hundred and fifty people tomorrow afternoon at the wedding reception, oh no. Now they needed to entertain about half of that the morning after for an after wedding morning brunch/ Bride and Groom Send-Off starting at seven at the local country club.

“ _Bugger!_ ” Laurie Evans exclaimed, clamping a hand over her mouth. “I don’t have flour-- how can we not have flour? I could have sworn we had some-- I _bought_ some at the store just the other day.”

Lily cleared her throat, “Um, mum…?”

“What is it, sweetheart?” Laurie asked, her voice strained from the stress.

Lily said nothing but pointed to the sack of flour sitting in a chair by the table.

“By golly, I must be going _mad.”_ her mum exhaled before grabbing hold of the flour and sitting in a chair it had previously occupied, the sack, now having been placed in her lap.

“Not mad, just stressed.” Lily pointed out before pushing her untouched cup of breakfast tea toward her mother and standing to pour a cup for herself.

“Thank you, dear.” Laurie said before taking a deep drink from the rather large mug. “Promise me something, dear, will you?”

“Alright,” Lily said hesitantly.

“Promise me when you get married you’ll give me more than a month’s notice to plan out the whole ordeal, yeah?”

“Don’t worry, mum-- I’m thinking small and simple,” Lily laughed. “So how many pies do you have to bake for tomorrow morning?”

“Ten.” Laurie replied automatically. “But to be safe, I’ll probably whip up an extra or two, which means I’d better get to work-- you’ll go pick some figs for me in the back yard like you promised, right?”

“Yes, mum, I’ll go right now if you’d like.” Lily said.

But both Lily and her mother were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Maggie’s exclamation of “We’re _home!!”_

The pitter-patter of footsteps along the wood floors of the hallway was all she heard before she saw her cousin flounce into the kitchen and plop down beside her, but not before bypassing the kitchen counter and picking up a blueberry muffin.

Her father was next, though he stopped at the hall closet and Lily heard the distinct sounds of something heavy dropping to the floor rather clumsily. 

And lastly, entered a woman Lily had not seen but in pictures for years. She was tall-- for a woman at least, maybe a few inches shorter than her father and was of a medium build. Her strawberry-blonde hair was short and hung about her good natured face in tight, neat curls. It was her eyes, however that caught Lily’s attention the most-- not for their striking colour, for they were of the plainest brown one could ever imagine, but because they seemed to almost dance with happiness, even more so as they landed on Lily herself.

“Aunt Rose!” Lily exclaimed, getting up immediately and running around the table to hug her aunt.

“Button!” Aunt Rose scooped Lily up into a tight hug, and Lily felt her feet lift off the ground slightly as her Aunt spun her around once like she used to when Lily was a child before letting her stand again. “Let me look at you, honey.”

Lily grinned broadly as her aunt made a show of holding her at arms length before making her spin slowly so she could take in her full appearance.

“My, how you’ve grown since the last time-- just look at you!” Aunt Rose praised “You’ve grown into such a beautiful young lady, Lily.-- you should be proud, Jeff, Laurie.”

“We are.” Jeff assured, smiling warmly down at his daughter.

It was then that Rose turned to Lily’s mum and the procedure of hugging was repeated as the two sisters were reunited.

“We’re so glad you could make it, Rose.” Laurie said, giving her sister’s hand a tight squeeze.

“Well, thanks for inviting us-- I trust Maggie’s been behaving herself?” Rose asked, giving her daughter a pointed look.

Maggie’s previously serious face broke out into an unavoidable smile.

“Oh, mom, I haven’t been anything but my usual, lovable self for Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jeff.” Maggie exclaimed.

“She’s been great, Rose, really, and we’ve loved having her-- Lily’d probably gone mad without her here.” Jeff said, putting an arm around his niece.

“Well, I hate to cut this reunion short, but I’ve got to start baking.”

Rose gave her sister a questioning look and Laurie elaborated. “We’re hosting a wedding brunch the day after the wedding as a sort of send off for Petunia and Vernon.”

“A send off?” Rose asked, her eyebrows raising. “Isn’t the reception send off enough?”

“Thank you, Aunt Rose-- that’s exactly what _I_ said…” Lily said just as her mother ignored her footnote and continued to explain.

“Well, it was Barbara’s idea and…well, it might be nice.” Laurie said, always one to be optimistic in any situation.

Aunt Rose gave a look that seemed to reflect Lily’s exact sentiments on the whole ordeal: that aside from everything else, this morning-after brunch simply looked like a whole lot of extra work-- a whole lot of _unnecessary_ extra work.

But instead of saying so, Aunt Rose simply smiled lightly and said, “And how many of Grandma Victoria’s famous pear and fig pies have you gotten yourself roped into making?”

“Around ten.” Laurie smiled.

“Well, that means _we’d_ better get to work-- have you got an extra apron around here somewhere?”

“Oh, Rose, no! I couldn’t possibly-- you go upstairs to the guestroom and rest. After an eleven hour flight, I imagine you’ll be exhausted.” Laurie protested.

“Who, me? Never!” Rose said. “Besides you’ll get them done twice as fast if there’s two of us working together, now, you get me that extra apron or you’ll feel twice as bad when my clothes get dirty from the flour.”

The subject was obviously closed for discussion and so, having been defeated Laurie pulled out an extra apron and handed it to her sister. 

Lily smiled as she watched her aunt and mother bustle about the kitchen together, momentarily wondering if Petunia and her would have ever gotten the chance to be that close even without her discovery of magical ability.

“Oh, and Jeff? I’m going to need you to go to the store again, do you mind? Just a few things I forgot to pick up yesterday.”

_"_ Of course not, dear.” Jeff said, taking the grocery list from her hand. 

Laurie grinned before busying herself with baking once more.

“Fancy a ride to the store, love?” Jeff asked Lily.

“Sorry dad, I’ve gotta get going on the fig picking for mum.”

“Right,” Jeff turned to the next available face in the kitchen. “Maggie? How about you?”

“Sure, Uncle Jeff, I’d love to go with you.” Maggie shrugged, before following him out the front door.

“And then there were three…” Lily muttered more to herself than anyone else.

“Alright, darling,” her mother said, handing Lily a rather large basket. “now, make sure you’ve filled the _entire_ thing-- that’s what Grandma Victoria’s recipe calls for: one full basket of figs.”

Lily nodded, swinging the basket as she made her way out toward the backyard.

\--

The Evans family had two fig trees in their yard: one rather small almost scrawny looking tree and another quite large one that Lily’s dad had once upon a time hung a rope on, effectively making a makeshift swing for Lily and Petunia to play on. Lily made her way toward the smaller of the two, knowing she’d be able to pick any ripe fruit from it easily without having to resort to climbing or searching for a suitable stepping stool. Had her mother not been baking enough pies to feed an army, harvesting the ripe fruit from the smaller tree might have been enough to fill up Grandma Victoria’s smaller basket, but it certainly did not fill up the larger basket that Lily had been given.

Lily was standing on her tiptoes, her arms stretched as far as she could manage as the tips of her fingers grazed the prized fruit, hanging tauntingly on the branch of the tallest of the two trees. She momentarily felt the rough, slightly grainy texture of the fig’s skin before she stumbled slightly and her feet were flat on the ground once more.

“Bugger!” Lily muttered, scowling as she crossed her arms and sent an annoyed look at the too high fruit. A light breeze caused her hair to once again blow in her face and she pulled it into a quick pony tail before a determined look settled upon her features.

“Okay,” Lily said, before crouching low to the ground and springing back up, her hand outstretched in the air as she jumped as high as she could.

Lily grabbed for the fruit and surprisingly, felt her hand grab onto something tangible. The triumphant grin that spread across her features was all to quickly wiped away as Lily almost instantly realized all she had managed to pick was a fist full of leaves.

“Bugger!” _Why_ did Barbara Dursley insist on inviting all those people?

As jumping obviously did not work, Lily resorted back to her old strategy of bringing herself to her fullest possible height as she waved her outstretched hand in hopes of being able to pluck a fruit off the branches.

“Oh, come _on!”_ Lily sighed exasperatedly, willing her hand to reach just a bit further.

“Bit beyond your reach?” 

Asked a voice from behind, causing Lily to stumble back onto the flats of her feet.

“Unfortunately…yes” Lily said, turning to grin up at James Potter who was staring brightly back at her.

Lily watched enviously as James reached up with ease, his feet barely leaving the ground. He plucked the troublesome fruit down from it’s high branch and handed it over to her, all the while, his brilliant smile never faltering.

“But obviously not beyond yours.” Lily mused, looking up from the fruit in her hand. “I’m beginning to think _nothing’s_ beyond _your_ reach, James Potter.”

James smiled once again, though this time almost sadly, “You’d be surprised,-- there are quite a few things that are _very_ much beyond my reach, Lily Evans.”

Lily had the faintest idea that James wasn’t exactly taking about being vertically challenged anymore but shook it off.

“You? Oh, I find that very hard to believe-- I’d imagine you’d give Jack’s magic beanstalk a run for it’s money at the rate you’ve grown.”

“Have you just compared me to a vegetable?” James asked.

“Technically it’s a legume but yes, I do believe I have if we’re speaking literally as opposed to figuratively.”

“Hmm…” James furrowed his brow as if in deep thought. “First you compare me to a soap every flavoured bean and now you’re comparing me to a beanstalk-- I‘m not exactly sure which one is better…”

Lily laughed at James’ thought process.

“I daresay I’ve moved up though.” 

Lily laughed, “you very well, could have.”

And with that, the two got to work, Lily pointing to the figs she needed and James, using his vertical advantage to bring them down.

“So how are we doing on the basket?” James asked.

Lily sighed, “Almost there but not quite.”

James looked back and forth from the basket to the tree. “Do you think you’ll be able to fill it? There don’t seem to be many left.”

“There a still quite a few up there,” Lily said gazing longingly at the figs high in the tree branches. “I’m sure we could fill Grandma Victoria’s basket…”

James followed her line of site. “Wishful thinking, love-- I know I’m tall, but I’m not _that_ tall.” 

He stood on the tips of his toes and even stretching his arm to it’s fullest, he was still quite a ways away from the closest fig.

“Why don’t you just climb up?”

Lily wrinkled her nose, “I was trying to avoid having to do that…”

“Why? You can’t be scared of heights--”

“It’s not that!” Lily replied, quickly. “It’s…well, for starters, I’m not dressed appropriately for climbing.”

“That?” James said, referring to her excuse. “Slight technical problem-- easily remedied!”

And making sure no one was looking, he pulled out his wand and gave it a quick wave. Before Lily had time to even protest or ask what he was doing, she felt the spell take effect. 

Lily only felt her dress flutter, as though a slight breeze had caused it to ruffle about in the air, but when she looked down, she realized James had successfully transfigured her yellow sundress into a one piece yellow jump suit, the legs of which, flared slightly at the bottom.

“Great.” Lily smiled weakly and with just a tint of sarcasm. “ _now_ I can go join the Brady Bunch.”

“The _who_?” James asked, perplexed.

“The Brady Bunch.” Lily repeated

James gave her a questioning look, obviously out of the loop.

“It’s this…they’re this family who…you know what?” Lily finally said after trying to explain. “Just forget it-- I’ll just show you sometime.”

James nodded. “Right, so, no Brady…whatsits, clothing for Lily...” and with another wave of his wand, Lily looked down to find that James transfigured the jump suit into a two pieced ensemble.

“Better?” James asked, smiling at his own handiwork as he pocketed his wand.

“Much.” Lily said approvingly. “Well, I guess I’ll just climb up now…” the last part of her sentence came out sounding more like a question as she turned and faced the base of the tree, as though examining the situation.

“Need a boost?” James asked from rather closer behind her than she’d expected, one of his lopsided smiles plastered onto his face.

“ _Nooo…_ ” Lily said, cautiously. “I’m just trying to figure out the best way to get up there…and I _think_ I’ve found it.”

Lily found her ‘leg up’ in the form of a protruding knot on the tree, and using it as leverage, she hoisted herself up with minor difficulty into the tree, manoeuvring herself higher until the figs were easily within reach.

“Catch.” she called down to James as she threw the fruits down one by one as she picked them.

James complied, catching every one before placing them carefully into the basket. 

“How’re we doing down there?”

“Great,” James called up. “Looks like the basket’s almost full-- I couple more ought to do it.”

Lily threw down several more fruits to complete the quota she’d been assigned. “How about now?”

“It’s full!” James confirmed. “You can go ahead and start climbing down now.”

Lily nodded in confirmation and turned carefully from high up in the tree so she was facing down and all of a sudden, the tree seemed much to narrow and the ground seemed much too far away.

“And this was why I was avoiding climbing up in the first place.” Lily said as she grasped the tree branches firmly.

“Lily…?” James asked, brow furrowed when she didn’t begin descending. “Um, is there a problem?”

“Getting down.” Lily said through gritted teeth.

“Um…what?” James scratched his nose, still looking up at her.

“Getting _down._ That’s the problem-- getting down is ALWAYS the problem, it’s getting up that’s easy.”

And that’s when James took in Lily’s full stance: her shifty eyes, her furrowed brow-- the fact that she was clinging onto the tree branches on either side of her for dear life.

“Y-you can’t be _scared--_ ARE you scared?” James asked, taken aback. “because, how could you be-- I mean, I saw you climb out your window that night…”

“Yeah, well,” Lily replied, in a tense voice. “climbing out and down from a window is much easier than climbing down a tree.”

Lily chanced a look at James’ face only to see it plastered with an adorable expression of confusion. 

“The side of my house is more level than this.” Lily explained. “It’s more like climbing down a ladder.”

James nodded in understanding. 

“But you’ve got to come down sometime.” he reasoned.

“Right,” Lily nodded. “Okay. Here I go…”

James stepped back, expecting Lily to commence her climb down, but instead, she stood still.

“You know? It’s quite nice up here-- I don’t think I’ll come down just yet…” Lily said.

“Lily…” James said, his voice slightly strained.

“No really, It’s quite cosy up here, once you find the right branch that is--”

“Lily--”

“And shady, very shady so I’d not run the risk of getting a sun burn--”

“Lily--”

“And the view! You should just see the view! That, makes it all the more worth it…”

“ _Lily.”_

“Yes?” Lily finally answered, her traitorous voice coming out sounding higher and more nervous than she’d intended it to.

“Jump.” James said simply.

“W-what?” Lily asked, “have you gone bonkers? You actually-- you want me to…?”

“Just…jump down.” James said again.

“James, that is completely insane-- if I jump, I’ll-- I’ll…”

“If you jump, I’ll catch you.” James said seriously.

“ _Nooo…_ ” Lily said, regaining her ability to speak in coherent sentences. “If I jump, I will most certainly fall flat on my arse, that is if I don’t end up breaking something in the process.”

“ _Lily.”_

“ _James.”_ Lily said, mimicking his tone.

“Lily, I’m being serious.” James said, becoming a bit exasperated.

“And so am I-- James if I jump, there’s no guarantee you’ll catch me and quite honestly, I’d rather not run the risk of how this whole jumping thing could go terribly wrong.”

“Lily,” James said softly as he walked toward her. He stopped at the base of the tree trunk, leaning on it as he looked up at her. “do you honestly think, that I would drop you? That I would ever let you fall in the first place?”

Lily stared back into his eyes, losing herself in their depth, and although the more rational part of her brain was telling her that jumping was still not a good idea, the part of her that was utterly hypnotized and completely taken by his words was quickly winning the battle.

And before she even had time to register what her body was doing, Lily felt herself shake her head in negation to James’ question.

“No,” she heard herself say softly.

“No, what?” James asked.

“No, I don’t think you’d ever drop me.” Lily sighed.

“Good,” James said, smiling crookedly up at her. “because I wouldn’t, you know.”

Lily’s only response was a nod.

“Ready to jump, then?”

Lily nodded again and James stepped away from the tree base, arms out, ready to catch her.

Lily let out a shallow breath, biting lightly on her bottom lip, and then, shutting her eyes tightly, she pushed off and away from the tree.

The familiar sensation one associates with falling settled in the pit of her stomach but stopped almost immediately. The fall, which should have lasted longer, stopped abruptly and Lily knew it was because James had caught her, just like he promised he would.

She opened one eye, then the other, her body twitching slightly in shock as she found her face within close proximity to James’. Her arms, she discovered, had somehow entwined themselves around his neck as he supported her with one arm under the joints of her knees while the other cradled her near her shoulder blades.

“See? Nothing to worry about-- I told you I wouldn’t let you fall.” James smiled warmly.

Lily said nothing, but continued to stare into his bright hazel eyes, instead wondering why she couldn’t bring herself to loosen the grip she had around James’ neck.

When Lily didn’t speak, James spoke again.

“I’ll always be here to catch you…” he said seriously.

Lily rolled her eyes inwardly at James’ attempt at sounding utterly romantic.

And as if he had read her mind, James added, “you know, if you ever find yourself stuck in a tree again.”

Lily couldn’t help the laugh that escaped from her lips, marvelling at how he could go from being utterly serious to joking around in a matter of seconds. “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks. Now if you could put me down…”

James complied, setting her lightly on her feet.

There was a pause of silence in which Lily took the time to dust off the seat of her pants.

“Well…” Lily said, trying to find something to break the silence with, “You’re coming tomorrow, right? To the wedding?”

“Of course-- unless of course you were thinking of revoking the invitation.” James said, feigning hurt.

“Don’t be silly, you dunderhead.” Lily remarked good-naturedly. “I was just making 

sure-- after all, you’ve already met one Dursely, you know from a first hand account that the other one should arguably be locked up with all her taffeta and flower arrangements in a mental institution, and let’s not forget my sister, we all know what a _picnic_ she is…I just…wouldn’t blame you for ‘running for the hills’ so to speak.”

James wanted to respond-- to tell Lily that not even a slew of Dementors would ever stop him from getting anywhere if it meant that he’d be with her, but instead, he smiled and said,

“Don’t worry, Lily-- I wouldn’t miss it, I promise.”

Lily grinned.

“Good, because, honestly, I dunno what I’d do without you…”the smile that was currently on Lily’s face faltered slightly and she felt a slight blush tinge her cheeks as she reinterpreted her last statement. Almost as though realising what her sentence had implicated, she added, “ _without you…_ there at the wedding that is…with Sirius, of course-- and your parents because we invited them as well-- to keep me from going utterly insane at my future in-law’s hands. Either that or to stop me from cursing them into oblivion--”

She said all this quickly, which simply made James’ smile if at all possible grow even wider.

“Right, of course.”

“Good.” Lily grinned. “So, see you tomorrow, then.”

“Tomorrow-- bye, Lily!” James called, before walking back over to his own house.

Lily watched him leave, walking through the side of her house, a small smile on her face for no apparent reason before she walked into her own house, Grandma Victoria’s basket full of figs in hand.

Tomorrow, she knew, was going to be a rather long day.

 

**A/N:**

I know, I know, long overdue, as I've been reminded by a couple of my readers! And before you ask, yes, I have started working on the next chapter!-- if it helps, it's by far my favorite!


	15. You Are Cordially Invited...

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**A/N:** YESS. I know, I am horrible-- months, and months without an update! *hangs head in shame* so here is the first part of the long awaited wedding chapter. 

 

Dedicated to Evan for being there to pull my heel out of the ground.

 

**Chapter 16:  You Are Cordially Invited…**

 

 

 

_Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Harold Evans_

_Cordially invite you to celebrate_

_the wedding of their daughter_

**_Petunia Anne Evans_ **

_to_

**_Vernon Eugene Dursley III_ **

****

_On Saturday afternoon_

_August 3, 1977_

_noon_

_Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church_

_Three Oakdale Avenue_

_Surrey, England_

©·©·©

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Lily had thought things couldn’t get even the least bit more hectic, she was sorely mistaken, for nothing prepared her for the actual wedding day. In general, Lily was not exactly a morning person, though she prided herself in being able to wake up when need be at a decently early hour. Even so, being rudely awoken at five thirty in the morning by her cow of a sister was not Lily’s cup of tea and she was in a word, irritable. Awoken at five thirty in the morning, been made to take a cold shower because dear, sweet Petunia had used up all the hot water, and worst of all? Deprived of her usual breakfast-- that was a big mistake as anyone who knew her, knew Lily was liable to eat a person alive if they deprived her of food when she was hungry.

Somewhere between the freezing shower, and the early alarm clock, Barbara Dursley had snappishly commanded her to go and find a box of bobby pins, having been tipped off by Petunia that Lily had been the one to have them last-- utterly ridiculous, Lily thought, as she never cared much about her hair to do anything with it that would require bobby pins in the first place.

_At least_ , Lily thought as she shuffled through the contents of the drawers on her vanity, _searching for misplaced hair accessories means five minutes without HER yelling in my ear…_

 

James hadn’t been lying when he told Sirius he never took the fact that his bedroom window faced directly into Lily’s as an excuse to spy on her. In fact, looking through his window would have never crossed his mind if it weren’t for the fact that Lily had been slamming drawer after drawer loudly enough so the sound echoed into James’ room. James smiled lightly, leaning on the window frame as he watched Lily rummage through her things. She was awfully adorable when she was frustrated, and it _really_ wasn’t spying if he wasn’t viewing something he shouldn’t be…or, if he made himself known, right?

“Lost something, have you?”

His voice carried over easily, and Lily looked up, her eyes meeting his, as she clutched her chest and let out a short breath.

“James!” Lily breathed.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He grinned.

“You didn’t,” Lily said, walking over to the window and pulling out her desk chair so she could sit at its sill. “Just startled me a bit, is all.”

“So what’s going on in the Evans’ household this morning?” James asked, getting into a more comfortable position.

“It’s an absolute madhouse over here,” Lily said, laughing slightly. “And I’m about to go have about ten pounds of hair products layered onto my head.”

“Sounds like fun.” James said dryly.

“Yeah, by the time you see me this afternoon, two galleons says my hair will be able to deflect most major jinxes and curses just as well as any Shielding Charm ever could.”

James laughed, “Well, I’m sure you’ll look lovely all the same-- heck, you already look amazing-- Your dress looks great by the way.”

Lily looked down briefly, having forgotten what she was wearing and resisted the urge to both blush at the fact that she’d not remembered to put on a robe, as well as the urge to laugh at James’ clueless-ness regarding women’s apparel.

“This is a slip, James.”

“A Slip? Oh! Is that the name of the designer or something?” James asked, trying to sound knowledgeable.

“No, James” Lily said, her voice laved with a smile. “A slip is…well, what one usually wears under a dress-- actually, in the olden days, one would usually refer to it as underwear.”

“ _WHAT?!”_ James exclaimed, slipping from where he had been leaning on the windowsill.

Lily laughed-- oh how she loved making James feel uncomfortable. Underwear had obviously been the key word, and she heard a distinctively loud _THUNK!_ as he fell to the floor.

James picked himself up quickly, wearing a blush that would have given one of Lily’s a run for her money.

“Thanks for sharing Lily.” James said blandly.

Lily laughed, noticing James’ attempt at looking anywhere other than back at her.

“I feel like such a peeping Tom, now-- Sirius was right, nothing good can come from you and I having adjacent windows….”

Lily laughed again. Leave it to Sirius to think of the worst possible scenario regarding adjacent windows-- as if Lily would ever strip down in front of an open window in the first place. At least, now she knew James respected her enough not to sneak a peek at her…

“Oh come on, James, don’t be silly!”

“I’m still trying to figure out why you’re so calm about this-- shouldn’t you be embarrassed right about now?” James said. He had now covered his eyes with his right hand.

“Well, it’s not like you saw anything-- this thing is hardly see through and it looks more like a dress than anything else-- you said so yourself.” Lily said reasonably. “Now stop being silly and take your hand off of your eyes.”

“No-- I’m being a gentleman!”

“You’re _being_ stupid.”

“You do realize you’re basically giving me permission to look at you in your underwear.” James said, his eyes still covered.

“Am not!” Lily countered. “If I wanted to do that then I’d take this stupid slip off! --”

“Oh, please don’t do that!” James said, waving one hand in the air. “Who knows who else can see you from _their_ windows.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t just say that as I’d not like to think of my neighbors as perverts…but back to the issue at hand-- open your eyes, James.”

And so he did. James cautiously opened one eye and then the other until he could clearly see Lily filling the frame that was her window, arms crossed over her chest and grinning playfully.

“You’d make a fair red head, you know,” Lily said slowly. “I mean you’ve already got the blush down.”

James pouted and his cheeks burned brighter, Lily swearing she heard him mutter something that almost sounded like _‘Only when you’re around, Evans…’_ before clearing his throat.

“Be nice, Lily or I won’t give you what I’ve got, here.” James said waggling his finger at her.

“And what exactly do you have?” Lily asked curiously.

James held out a little box, jangling it slightly.

“James Potter, I _hope_ you didn’t go out and buy me a present for no apparent reason.”

“Not exactly,” James said. “But what would it matter if I did?”

“Well, it’s not exactly an occasion for presents is it? Besides, at weddings, isn’t it customary to bring a present to the _bride and groom_ and not the Maid of Honour?”

“Cute, Lily, very cute. But don’t worry, my parents already got Petunia and Vernon something.” James said.

Lily’s face softened and her expression became serious, “James, you really shouldn’t have---whatever‘s in this box, I just can‘t accept it…”

“Ah, see, I thought I’d hit this little snag.” James smiled knowingly. “It was quite funny really, I could almost hear your voice in my head telling me I shouldn’t be giving you presents unless it was a special occasion-- a birthday, or Christmas, or something along those lines…So, if it’s alright with you, I’m not exactly _giving_ this to you-- it’s more of a loan really, something for you to _borrow_.”

Lily laughed at his reasoning-- how he had managed to find a loophole in gift giving was beyond her.

James pulled out his wand and expertly levitated the box out of his window and over to hers.

Lily watched as the box landed lightly on her windowsill before looking back at James.

“Go on,” James urged with a smile. “Open it.”

Lily sighed before removing the golden ribbon. She opened the deep, wine coloured box; a single, small, cream coloured pearl, hanging by a vintage, sparkling clasp that Lily was almost certain was encrusted with what seemed like a hundred minuscule diamonds sat amidst the velvet folds. Lily Lifted the pendant from the box by it’s dainty silver chain-- it was by far the most beautiful and elegant piece of jewelry Lily had ever seen in her life and she’d bet anything it was probably as expensive as it was exquisite.

“Oh, James…it’s beautiful.” Lily whispered, unable to help herself.

“It was my great-grandmum’s-- I found it in the attic just before we moved here. I thought, well, It’s just sitting in my sock drawer and it’d look much prettier on _you_ than in _there_ and besides, you’re supposed to wear ‘something borrowed’ and ‘something old’ to weddings-- this way, I figured I could help you kill two birds with one stone.”

“ _Something borrowed…?_ Now where would you come up with a silly idea like--“ Lily’s eyes lit in realization, “ _OH!_ You mean that wedding rhyme? ‘something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue’?”

“Of course,” James said. “What did you think I was referring to?”

“Oh, James…” Lily chuckled. “We, um…that saying, well it only applies to the _bride_ not the entire wedding party.”

“Damn.” James said, managing a grin though, most likely slightly disappointed that he had gotten the saying wrong. “I’m going to kill Sirius-- I _knew_ I should have checked with Remus beforehand…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lily smiled. “I’m, ah, _sure_ anyone could have made the same mistake…”

“Oh, stop trying to make me feel better.” James said, waving a hand in dismissal.

James watched as Lily packed the necklace with care back into its box.

“Can I ask you something, Lily?”

“Of course.” She found herself biting her lip at James’ rather serious sounding tone. It was one of his traits that she had always found admirable; his ability to go from joking about to being gravely serious at the drop of a hat in a manner that demanded everyone’s full attention.

“Could you….I mean, I know there’s not really a reason for you to anymore, but,” James paused, his eyes gently holding hers. “would you wear it anyway?-- the necklace, that is…?”

“I--” Lily paused, her original answer of rejecting the idea catching in her throat.

“It’s just on loan, right?” Lily asked, wearily. “And you _promise_ to let me give it back to you at the end of the night?”

“At the end of the night-- of course!” James responded quickly, nodding for emphasis.

Why this was so important to him, Lily did not know, but she found that a tiny bit of her deep down inside felt warm and fuzzy knowing that she had managed to make him happy by arguably doing nothing at all.

“Well in that case, I guess I should say thank you.” Lily said, fidgeting with the box in her hands.

“I guess you should…” James trailed off with a smile.

The moment of silence was interrupted by a rather loud voice calling Lily from somewhere in her house.

“I guess you’d better go, huh?”

“Yeah-- duty calls, but I’ll see you in a couple hours at the service.”

“Alright, see you later then.” James said, watching Lily back out toward the door of her room.

“Thanks for loaning this to me, James.” Lily said, softly, holding up the small box in her hand. “I love it, really-- it’s beautiful.”

“You’re welcome, Lily.” James smiled. “See you later.”

Lily shut her bedroom door, walking slowly down the hall, prying the velvet box open as she did. The pearl necklace lay in the black velvet fabric looking just as breathtaking as the first time she saw it. She smiled slightly, lifting the necklace carefully out of the box, stopping in front of the hall mirror at the foot of the staircase to unhook the clasp and carefully place the necklace around her neck.

She touched the pendant lightly, and smiled wondering if this particular smile had more to do with the fact that it had been _James_ who had loaned her the necklace in the first place.

“LILY!!! HURRY _UP!_ WE HAVEN’T GOT ALL DAY!” came the screaming voice of her sister from down the stairs.

“ _COMING!!”_ Lily called down.

She took the stairs two at a time, bounding around the corner and stopping just shy of smacking straight into Aunt Rose.

“Oh! Sorry, Aunt Rose!” Lily winced. “Wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“That’s alright, Button, I was actually coming to find you, because I believe you were looking for these?” Aunt rose pulled a small box from her front pocket.

“The bobby pins,” Lily said, looking relieved. “Where’d you find them? I’ve been looking everywhere!”

“Your mom had them in her room--”

“LILY MARIE _EVANNNSSS_!!!”

Lily winced at the sound of her name.

“Better go before Petunia spontaneously combusts,” Lily smiled weakly, plucking the box of pins from her Aunt’s outstretched hand. “then again…that may not be such a bad thing…”

“ _Lily Evans!”_ Aunt Rose exclaimed in a mock outraged voice, wiping the wistful look right off Lily’s face.

“Only joking, Aunt Rose!” Lily grinned, sprinting the rest of the way to her father’s study.

She yanked open the door only to come face to face with her sister’s livid face.

“Here.” Lily said, tossing the box of bobby pins at her.

“See? I _told_ you, you had them last-- liar.” Petunia accused.

Lily simply rolled her eyes in response, she had, after all promised her dad she wouldn’t rile up her sister too much, and instead looked around the room for a familiar face.

She spotted Maggie instantly with her vibrant bright red hair in the corner and Lily picked her way through the throng of gaggling women, ignoring some of the frigid looks thrown her way.

“Hey, nice necklace.” Maggie shivered.

“Thanks.” Lily said quickly. “ I take it the dresses haven’t arrived yet?”

Due to Maggie’s almost identical to hers attire, Lily could almost guess the answer to her own question.

“B-better not s-say that too loud,” Maggie warned, her teeth chattering ever so often. “P-petunia goes into

f-fits of hysterics every time she thinks a-about it-- B-Barbara’s j-just gotten her to c-calm down.”

Lily huffed, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. Petunia would be one to believe the fact that none of the dresses had arrived yet was all a huge plot to ruin her big day.

“Maggie, you’re shivering.” Lily pointed out, obviously.

“That’s because we’re practically standing in a igloo-- it’s _freezing_ in here, Lily!” Maggie shivered.

“Dad’s study has always been the coldest room in the house,” Lily mused. “funny, though. I thought you’d be used to the cold. It doesn’t exactly get too warm in your neck of the woods.”

“Yes, but you forget, my darling cousin that I’m on _vacation_. -- I fully intended on leaving the fog _behind_ in the city where it belongs, not take it with me.”

Lily laughed. “Fair enough.”

Maggie’s teeth continued chattering through the brief pause.

“Okay, seriously!” Maggie exclaimed abruptly. “If the dress lady doesn’t come soon, _I’M_ going to strangle her!”

“I thought you didn’t like the idea of having to flounce around in a dress all day.”

“I don’t,” Maggie said. “but any bit of clothing I can drape myself in right about now would make me a very happy camper.”

Lily frowned, taking pity on her cousin. “Here, we’ll turn the fireplace on.”

Maggie’s eyes lit up with joy at the thought of warmth,

“Have I told you lately, that I love you?” Maggie sang, graciously as she followed Lily.

“Yes,” Lily confirmed, grinning. “This morning, in fact, I believe, and yesterday as well, but it’s always nice to be reminded.”

“So,” Maggie said conversationally, “Are you going to use _you know what_?”

“Actually, I was just going to do it the old fashioned way.”

Maggie looked slightly confused as if trying to figure out what she meant.

“Observe and learn, my darling pupil.” Lily said patting her on the head.

She produced a packet of matches from behind an ornate clock on the mantle and made a show lighting the match slowly, before finally lighting a fire.

Maggie laughed good naturedly as Lily ordered her to sit near the fireplace so she could warm up.

“Really, Maggie, you’ve been around people who can do ‘you know what’ for a couple of days and already you’ve forgotten how to turn on a fireplace?”

Maggie’s response was to laugh once more, noting that Lily wasn’t really scolding her.

“Oh, right, I was going to ask you…” Lily started.

“Yes…?” Maggie prompted, in a much better mood now that she was warm and toasty.

“Why’s Petunia got us all packed in here if the dresses haven’t even come yet?”

“We’re waiting for our turn with the hair dresser, or should I say, hair dresser- _S_.”

“There’s more than one?”

Maggie nodded. “They’re calling us in three at a time to the torture chamber.”

“And where exactly is this torture chamber they’ve set up?”

“In the guest room across the hall-- don’t worry though,” Maggie, said, reading Lily’s facial features. “They didn’t kick my mom out-- both our mothers, intelligently made themselves scarce right after the primping started…lucky ducks-- your mom made appointments with her hairdresser in town instead.” Maggie added this last bit in resentfully because she obviously hadn’t been given the option of ducking out.

“Traitors.” Lily mumbled. “But that explains why Aunt Rose looked as though she was on her way out the door just now.”

The door to her father’s study gave a shudder and them forcefully opened, revealing Wedding Planner Number Six framed by the doorway, wearing a smart black power suit and holding a clipboard in her hand.

“ _Ahem,”_ She cleared her throat and the room went silent. “L-Lily? Lily Evans? Is Lily Evans here?”

Lily stilled, not moving from her spot on the rug. “I thought you said they were calling us in three at a time!” Lily whispered when no more names were called.

“They were…” Maggie said. “Dunno what that’s about but you better go.”

“Lily Evans?” The wedding planner called her name once more.

Lily grimaced down at Maggie, “Wish me luck-- no, I take that back! Pray for me instead!”

She stood, and once again picked her way to the front of the room, taking care not to tread on too many toes.

“Oh good, you’re here!” Number Six said, looking relieved. “Come along, then!”

Lily followed her down the hall and into the rather spacious room, noticing immediately that the bed had been removed, either on Petunia’s or Barbara’s orders, and four ‘stations’ had been set up in the small space-- it was as if Petunia had managed to bring the beauty parlor to _her._

“Is this the hopeless case, then?” Asked a crisp voice, which Lily realized belonged to a rather modern- groomed woman standing next to her sister.

“Yes, that’s her-- Maid of Honour.” Barbara Dursley said in her rather monotone voice.

“Well, do with her what you can-- I know you can’t work miracles,” Petunia sheered as she walked to the door. “But at least try and make her look _presentable_ , I won’t have her mucking up my wedding any more than she already has.

“I’m off, now,” Petunia said, reaching for the doorknob, “I’ve got Helen waiting upstairs in my room-- _ACK!!”_

“What?! What is it?” Barbara asked, in response to Petunia’s shrill of a cry.

“The doorknob! I just touched it, -- and-- and…” Petunia exclaimed.

“Nonsense, Petunia, dear-- nothing but static electricity is all it must have been!” Barbara said flippantly, opening the door herself to show that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the doorknob.”

Even so, as Petunia begrudgingly left, she shot an accusing look at Lily from over her shoulder, to which Lily simply shrugged innocently having not at least _CONCIOUSLY_ done anything to the doorknob as to give her sister a shock.

The door slammed shut and Lily stared at it for a while until the same crisp voice from before interrupted her thoughts.

“So, you’re the supposed hopeless cause, are you?”

Lily turned slowly to face the woman once more, fully prepared to be just as frigid as she would undeniably be, especially since Petunia hired her. She was met, however, not by the pointed, snooty look she was expecting, but by a rather knowing smile that, if anything, could only be described as friendly.

Lily was quite taken aback and could not think of how to respond,

“Quite obviously, your sister was exaggerating… _excessively._ Does she do that often?”

Lily could still not bring herself to respond, but if she thought that was strange, the hairdresser never let on.

“Alright, ladies. This is quite obviously not going to take the four of us,” the woman said to the other three women in the room, ready with combs and brushes in hand. “Tina, go over and tell Meredith to send in three more girls and for _Pete’s sake_ be discrete! I don’t fancy being told off _again_ by Barbara for not following orders!”

The girl named Tina did as she was told and it was then, that Lily found her voice.

“You mean Petunia actually intended _all four_ of you to work on my hair at once?!” Lily asked, outraged.

“So you _DO_ speak, then?”

“That, is utterly ridiculous on so many levels,” Lily went on. “I mean, I know I’m in no respects the next Miss Universe, but I never thought I was-- I was…well…”

“You’re not, love. You’re quite pretty, actually-- lovely hair.” the woman said, stroking her head as if to get a feel of her hair texture while she directed her over to a stool. “So why don’t you just take a seat, and relax. You’re in excellent hands if I do say so myself-- I’m Ellie, by the way.”

Ellie smiled at her through the mirror and Lily smiled back.

“I’m Lily.”

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, Miss Lily. Now,” Ellie took a brush to her hair, damping it slightly with a little spray bottle hanging on her belt. “I’m thinking…something elegant-- classy, but not over extravagant. Quite honestly, I’d love to just curl your hair slightly and leave it down, but they’ve insisted all the bridesmaids are to have their hair up in some form or another…what color is your dress, dear?”

“Oh!” Lily pulled out a small swatch of material from her pocket. “This is the colour-- spare bit of material from the dress.”

“Lovely!” Ellie said, fingering the material and bringing it closer to examine it. “You know, I brought some rhinestones that are a bit darker than this, but if we can get them to stick, I’ll be they’ll go beautifully with your hair…what do you think?”

“Honestly, I don’t know much about hair design, but I’m sure you know what you’re doing, so if _you_ think it’ll look good…” Lily said, looking at Ellie through the mirror. “-- but, nothing _too_ extravagant, yeah?”

“No worries, Lily.” Ellie laughed good-naturedly, perhaps at Lily’s obvious hesitancy. “Actually, I think I’ve got just the thing…”

All of a sudden, Lily felt the salon chair she was sitting in spin around once, twice, and on the third spin, she sat with her back facing the mirror.

Within seconds Ellie was attacking her hair and Lily soon discovered that she worked with practiced precision and speed, and after Lily subconsciously relaxed, perhaps after noticing that not once did Ellie accidentally pull or prod, she realized that the whole process of having someone groom your hair and apply make-up to your face was almost relaxing. She was pondering this when all of a sudden, Ellie’s voice cut through her thoughts.

“All done!” Ellie proclaimed smugly. “would you like to see?”

Not waiting for a response, Ellie turned Lily’s chair so she was once again facing the mirror and Lily, not believing what she saw in the mirror before her, stood from her chair to take a closer look. She touched her face softly, her eyes trailing from the elegant French Pleat atop her head to her now slightly rouged lips. She looked like the old sepia portrait of her great grandmother at eighteen years old in the silver frame above the fireplace-- older, elegant, and personifying a classic beauty that Lily had always wanted but never thought she could achieve herself.

“What’d I tell you?” Ellie said, once again interrupting her internal thoughts. “Absolutely lovely.”

“It’s perfect.” Lily whispered, admiring her hair that was, as she requested, not too extravagant. “Thank you!”

“No problem, love.” Ellie grinned.

“Miss Evans?”

Lily turned to see Wedding Planner Number Six addressing her from the doorway.

“The dresses are here and I’ve taken the liberty of putting yours in your room, but I’ll need you to go straight up there and slip it on-- we’re running on schedule but it’s going to be a tight squeeze nonetheless if we want to get wedding party photos in before we leave the house.”

Lily nodded and gave Ellie a final smile before following out the door. She caught Maggie’s eye, at the station nearest the door and Maggie gave her an appraising smile and a wink from her own salon chair.

 

Lily was attempting to fasten the straps to her silver heels when Maggie entered her room, not bothering to knock.

“My dear, you are a _vision_!” Maggie proclaimed.

Lily laughed.

“As are you.” She said, taking in Maggie’s appearance in her own bridesmaid dress as she made a show of twirling around. “Hey, no fair! How come no one made _you_ put your hair up?”

“Oh, they were going to, but then they realized they couldn’t do much what with the length of my hair, so they settled for grooming it as best they could.” Maggie said, patting the spot where the strands of hair had been pulled back away from her face by two matching barrettes, before fluffing her now slightly curled hair. “Perks of having the length of your hair fall just _above_ your shoulders.”

“Honestly though, with the way you went on about the dresses in the letter you sent just before I got here, I was expecting worse-- _much_ worse,” Maggie said, taking a seat next to Lily on the bed. “But you know, these aren’t half bad.”

“ _Yeah,_ ” Lily said through a sardonic laugh. “You should have seen what Petunia wanted us to wear _before_ I got her to change the style AND the colour.”

“ _You_ got Petunia to change the bridesmaid dresses? No _way_ \-- how the heck did you manage to do that?” Maggie asked, eyebrows raised up high.

“Didn’t I tell you about this?” Lily asked, her tone incredulous. “In a nut shell, it involved my _darling_ sister, her lump of a fiancée, and magic—compliments of Mr. Sirius Black—three things that should NEVER be mixed together. Anyway, I gave Petunia an ultimatum: change the colour of the dresses to something a little more flattering for us redheads, or Vernon has to have his memory wiped clean as technically speaking, muggles aren’t allowed to know about magic.”

“Well, don’t you drive a hard bargain?” Maggie said. “Speaking of us mere ordinary folk not being allowed to know about the wizarding world, some magic official isn’t going to, like, show up on the doorstep right as I’m leaving for home and try to wipe _my_ memory are they?”

“Oh, no.” Lily said quickly. “Actually, the rule isn’t as absolute as it sounds and I didn’t bother to clarify it for Petunia. See, knowledge of magic within families or even within friends of first generation witches or wizards is alright—it all depends on whether you feel like sharing that bit about yourself, but since Vernon isn’t technically related to me in any way, shape, or form, the Obliviators showed up because they thought he was just some random muggle. When Petunia gets married though, as my brother-in-law, he’ll be void of any of that hassle.”

“So that’s wizarding law in a nut shell, is it?” Maggie asked.

“In terms of wizarding word concealment, yes.” Lily laughed. “Ready to go downstairs, then? It’s almost time to leave.”

“Exactly why I came over to get you—I think the photographer’s downstairs—he wants to get some family shots in before we get to the church.”

“Fun.” Lily said, purposefully forcing a smile before linking arms with Maggie and going downstairs.

 

While Maggie flounced down the stairs, Lily paused at the foot of the staircase to look at her parents. Her father looking quite strapping for a forty-something father of two in a smart black tuxedo, and her mother, looking elegant as ever as she expertly tied her father’s bowtie. Lily could recall on various occasions looking on as her mother did simple things like this for her father—there was just something so utterly _loving_ about a wife helping her husband with his bow tie. She sighed audibly at the thought, hoping that one day, she’d be lucky enough to find someone to love as much as her parents loved each other.

“Don’t tell me you’re tired already, darling,” Her father said, turning toward her and mistaking her sigh for one of boredom, “the wedding hasn’t even really begun, yet.”

“I’m wide awake ready to go, dad, don’t worry.” Lily grinned.

“That’s my girl—did you eat something yet?” he asked as Laurie Evans finished with his bowtie. “Because you know how Father O’Neil can be—when he gets going there’s no stopping him.”

“Ne’er a truer statement spoken,” Aunt Rose piped in. “Do you remember when Judy Hutchins got married, Laurie?”

“How could I forget?” Laurie laughed. “And Father O’Neil started on about how Judy was a good girl who always went to Sunday school…”

“And he ended up talking for over two hours?” added Aunt Rose. “And then, Marie Wilson,”

“Passed out, yes!” Laurie finished. “How could I ever forget? That was _horrible._ ”

“Actually, I find it quite funny.” Aunt Rose giggled.

“Well, funny now, yes,” Laurie admitted. “But at the time, it wasn’t that funny at all.”

“True, very true.” Aunt Rose said. “Especially considering it could have been any one of us bridesmaids.

“Wait, some girl passed out?” Maggie echoed. “How? From malnourishment?”

“I dunno, I can’t remember if she’d had something to eat before the church ceremony started…” Aunt Rose said.

“Really though, I think it had to do more with the fact that it must have been about ninety degrees in that church, _and_ the fact that Father O’Neil had his little alter boy burning frankincense wasn’t that much of a help either.” Said Laurie.

“Made the church _extra_ stuffy.” Said Aunt Rose matter-of-factly.

“Are you lot ready yet or not?” Petunia said briskly, poking her head through the front door. “The photographer’s ready and I don’t want to be late to my own wedding!”

“Coming, dear!” Laurie called as Jeff ushered them outside before closing the front door behind him.

 

“Now then,” the photographer said quickly “We’ll be taking three shots with the family—one with you and your parents, dear, one with your parents and sister, and we’ll toss in your Aunt and cousin in for the final family shot, here. Then, we’ll do a shot with you and your bridesmaids, as your ushers are already at the church, are they not? —Splendid! —And, we’ll wrap it up with a final group shot of everyone present. Please do NOT position yourselves, _I_ will do the positioning for you and for god’s sake, when I’ve placed you in a specific position _try not_ to move!”

Lily caught Maggie’s eye after the photographer’s speech and laughed silently behind her hand before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“You’re the sister, yes? And maid of honour?”

He didn’t wait for a reply before he positioned Lily in the shot and again, reminded her not to move an inch.

 

When the last shot had been taken, Lily blinked her eyes repeatedly, trying to adjust to the natural light.

“Well, this is it!” Jeff Evans said as he helped his wife into one of the three cars that was waiting for them.

“And can you believe we actually put it all together in a month?” Laurie said in awe. “Now we’ve just got to hope nothing goes wrong…”

“Come now, what are you on about, dear? The worst part is over—you and Barbara have planned the wedding, everything’s set to the tee…” Jeff listed. “I don’t see how anything _could_ go wrong. Just you wait, it’ll all be smooth sailing from here.”

 

Lily hadn’t wanted to say anything in the car for fear of jinxing the entire ordeal, but as she walked briskly through the church, on her way to the side chamber at the front entrance, Lily had no particular qualms of saying her dad had spoken too soon when he had told her mum that it would ‘all be smooth sailing from here.’

She saw her mum’s head peek through the ajar door before she reached it.

 

“Oh, goodness, Lily, there you are!” her mother said, ushering her into the side chamber. “Have you found Stuart, yet?” she asked in regards to the missing sixth, and final groomsman.

“Yes,” Lily said tentatively.

“She’s found Stuart, then?” Maggie asked, reaching them. She took one look at Lily’s face and then said, “Don’t tell me—this is going to be one of those ‘Do you want the good news, or the bad news, first’ scenarios, isn’t it?”

“Well?” Barbara asked pointedly, urging Lily to proceed. “Where is he? Tell him he’s got about fifteen seconds to get himself out here or _I’ll_ have his _head!”_

“And _I_ believe you’ll find that a hard feat for him to accomplish, Mrs. Dursley, considering that at the moment, Stuart’s got his head down a toilet.” Lily said simply.

 “He _was_ able to stop vomiting just long enough to say he ‘shouldn’t have eaten the potato salad’ at last night’s dinner rehearsal.”  

“We can’t very well start the wedding with only _five_ groomsmen— the entire court would be imbalanced!” Mrs. Dursley cried. “What are we going to do?”

“She has a point,” her mother said, watching as Barbara paced the floor, muttering to herself. “we can’t have five groomsmen and six bridesmaids.”

“But Stuart obviously can’t do it.” Aunt Rose said. “What’ll you have the poor boy do? Walk down the aisle with a bucket in his arms just in case he needs to relieve himself?”

“Wouldn’t put it past _her_ …” Maggie muttered.

“Look, you all—don’t worry,” Lily said, finally, “Mum… _mum!_ Trust me, I’m going to fix this, you just do what you need to do to relax—whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing aside from worrying about groomsmen, I want you to do.”

“Lily…” Laurie started, looking at her daughter’s determined face.

“Really, mum--- you said you wanted me to be the Maid of Honour, well, isn’t this what she usually does? Take care of any small insignificant details that need tweaking?”

Lily never waited for her mother to answer. Instead, she backed away from the group slowly, mouthing the word relax one last time before turning around and wondering how in the world she was going to manage to find a replacement groomsman—they didn’t, Lily mused, just fall out of the sky, after all.

She was at the front of the church now; pacing back and fort atop the trademark cobblestone front when she felt the rather thin heel of her left shoe catch on one of the gaps between the stones.

“Oh, bugger.” Lily groaned, feeling her heel stick and stubbornly refuse to pull out from between the stones. She lifted the skirt of her long dress to find her heel wedged tightly and attempted to pull her shoe out once more, but only succeeded in throwing off her own balance. After stabling herself, Lily attempted to wriggle the heel loose; letting out a groan of frustration when she realized it wasn’t about to budge anytime soon.

“It seems as though I’m developing a habit of coming across you when you’re in rather tight spots…” said an all too familiar voice coming up the front steps.

“I’m not sure whether I should be embarrassed, or relieved that you seem to show up when I’m in possible need of assistance.” Lily admitted.

“May I?” James asked, motioning to her stuck heel.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Lily said, relieved, as James swooped down so he was kneeling before her.

She pulled the skirt up her leg so he could see what he was doing, and said. “Damn dress—not particularly useful for getting anything done, and definitely not easy for the wearer to say, stoop down and un-stick her own heel…”

James laughed lightly and Lily couldn’t help but suppress a shiver at the feeling of his breath fanning her calf… The fact that his hair, messy as ever, was now brushing up against her kneecap was not helping matters much either.

“I can see how that could be a burden, on the upside, that shade of lilac is much lovelier than the original dress colour, and,” he said, looking up at her as he guided her foot out of the shoe so he could pull it out, “you look absolutely beautiful.”

Lily steadied herself by grabbing onto James’ shoulder so her shoeless foot wouldn’t touch the ground and blushed, unable to help herself. James Potter had told her countless times that she was beautiful, but this was the first time she had ever allowed herself to believe it. It was something about the way he was looking at her from behind those trademark black rimmed glasses that reverberated sincerity, truth, and Lily wondered how many times James had given her that same look whilst complimenting her in the past.

James looked down, busying himself with pulling her shoe out of the ground, before she could see the earsplitting grin, somewhere between triumphant and goofy that now sat upon his lips. He had made Lily blush. James had lost track of the number of times he had told Lily flat out how gorgeous she was, and he couldn’t help but wonder why this particular instant had had such an effect on her…

“Well, you clean up pretty nicely yourself…”Lily said, casually.

“Coming from you, that means a lot.” James said, laughing again as he fastened the buckle on her shoe before innocently grazing her heel with his fingers.

“All done.” He smiled up at her. “Unless there’s anything else you’d like me to do for you while I’m here…”

Lily would have heard the suggestiveness of his tone, had it not been for the fact that she was distracted by James’ coat. He had, Lily noticed now, gone through the trouble of dressing accordingly in a pair of black trousers and a smart, form-fitting jacket. _A jacket_ Lily thought _that was almost identical, save for the buttons but I bet no one will notice…_

“Actually, there is something you can do for me.” Lily said, suddenly.

James’ eyebrows raised questioningly, but he kicked himself mentally and told himself to get his mind out of the gutter when Lily tugged him by the arm and said “Come on!” before dragging him off through the church.

“Where are we going? —Lily, what’s going on?” James asked, allowing her to drag him.

“Shh! Not here, James.” Lily said quietly. “Are your parents here, yet?”

“Yes.” James answered. “They’re sitting down with Sirius.”

“So, if I were to… _borrow_ …you for a while, do you think they’d miss you?”

“Lily, what ever it is that you need, just tell me.” James said.

“Alright.” Lily breathed, letting him go when they reached a smaller altar to the side, and turning to face him. “In short, we had a rehearsal dinner last night for the wedding and _why_ Stuart would even _think_ to have the ‘famous’ Dursley Potato Salad is _beyond_ me, but he did, and he’s paying for his mistake by upchucking the contents of his stomach in the loo and now we’re short a groomsman and apparently if we don’t find a replacement the whole wedding will be ruined, and I could really five a flipping shite whether or not Barbara Dursley says that the entire wedding party will be imbalanced with only five, but my mum’s _really_ stressing out about this and you _know_ I wouldn’t ask you if I really didn’t need to but it’s just that I don’t really know _who_ else to ask, and—“

“Lily, stop. _Breathe._ ” James said, cutting her off and putting both hands on her shoulders. “Don’t worry about it, whatever it entails, I’ll do it—just tell me what to do.”

“You will?” Lily asked, surprised.

“ _Yes.”_ James said definitively.

“Thank _Merlin!”_ Lily said, flinging her arms around him in a quick hug.

“There’s just one problem, Lily,” James said, pushing her away so he could look her in the eye. “I’m assuming that these groomsmen all dress uniformly…”  
“Already one step ahead of you, James.” Lily said, crossing the hall and knocking on the bathroom door. “Stuart…?”

“Ughnnn….” Groaned a disembodied voice.

James’ eyebrows furrowed at the obvious discomfort of the boy behind the door.

“It’s Lily—remember? I came to check on you a few minutes ago…are you feeling any better?” She asked, tentatively.

“I—I don’t think I can—“ Stuart began, before Lily and James distinctly heard him empty the contents of his stomach into the toilet.

Lily cringed slightly, becoming queasy simply from the noise.

“Don’t worry about the wedding, Stuart—just get it all out, you’ll feel better, after.”   
Lily said, encouragingly. “Listen, Stuart—I’ll need to borrow your bow-tie and cummerbund—is that alright? —Just, open the door and I’ll help you out of them.”

The door to the one room lavatory opened to reveal a sandy haired boy, crouched on his knees, his arms wrapped around the toilet.

Lily helped him out of the items she had asked to borrow, before rubbing his back soothingly.

“Is there anyone you’d like me to send for you?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Stuart groaned, eyes shut tight. “m-my mum, please—Josie knows who she is.”

He said, in reference to one of Petunia’s other bridesmaids.

“Alright.” Lily said, soothingly.

“And, Lily?” Stuart asked.

“Yes?”

“Tell Barbara I’m sorry…”

Lily nodded before stepping out of the bathroom and allowing Stuart to close the door.

“Poor Stuart.” James said, as Lily rounded on him.

“Take off your jacket,” Lily said quickly.

“Yes, _ma’am_.” James said, slipping it off quickly. Had this been any other time, he would have found some comment with a double meaning to throw at her in a good-natured way.

Lily took it upon herself to clip the cummerbund around James’ waist, positioning it correctly, before coming around to stand in front of him and slipping the bowtie around his collar, leaving the two ends hanging loosely, before helping him back into his jacket.

“Let’s go.” She said, grabbing him by the wrist and once more, walking briskly as thought nothing was wrong, back to the side chamber where she knew her mother to be waiting for her.

“Oh, good, you’re back—is Stuart coming along, then?” Barbara Dursley asked, having been the first one to spot Lily.

“I thought I made it perfectly clear before that _Stuart_ is in no fit condition to participate in the wedding at the moment, no matter how much you threaten him.” Lily said, trying to keep her tone even.

Barbara Dursley gave her a seething look at the comment, before noticing James who was standing beside her, running a hand through his hair nervously.

“What’s this? Who is this young man you’ve got with you and _why_ is he dressed as the rest of the men in the wedding party?”

“You _did_ say you needed _six_ groomsmen for the ceremony so I’ve brought you a _sixth man._ ” Lily said, pushing James so he was partially in front of her.

“But this is absurd! What I meant is that Stuart needed to get over his _problem_ and go stand at the altar with the other boys, not for you to go out and find a _replacement!_ ”

“Forgive me, Mrs. Dursley, but what _I_ find absurd is that you cannot comprehend, however many different ways I find to tell you that Stuart is in no way, shape or form going to be well enough to fulfill his duties— you need a sixth groomsmen and I’ve got one right here for you.” Lily said. “The way I see it, James here, is your only option and you should be _thankful_ that he has so graciously conceded to do us such an enormous favour as standing in for Stuart in the first place.”

“My daughter has a point, Barbara.” Laurie Evans cut in.

“You are vouching for this young man, Laurie?” Barbara asked, tightly.

“I am indeed.” Laurie said. “James, here is wonderful boy, quite charming, you’ll find if you take a moment to talk to him. —He’s top of the year right along with Lily at their boarding school and just so happens to live next door.”

James didn’t know what to say. The way Lily’s mum had described him, in a tone that clearly stated she thought rather highly of him was enough to have made him blush.

“He’s missing a boutonnière.” Barbara said finally, as though this was the thing to be worrying about most at this time.

Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes. Thinking quick, she grabbed her bouquet of fresh roses she had left on a chair and pulled one of the smaller, less bloomed ones from the bunch along with a green leaf and a swig of baby’s breath. She then rummaged through a small sewing kit her mum had brought along just in case and wound all three pieces together with a bit of thread before pinning the makeshift boutonniere to James’s front.

“There.” Lily said, holding her arms out as though James was an object to showcase. “A boutonniere.”

“Well, well, haven’t you just thought of _everything?_ It seems as if I’ve no choice in this matter…” Barbara said primly. “But if you so much as make one mistake---“

“Oh, what mistakes could he possibly make? All he’s got to do is stand there behind Vernon at the altar and then walk down the aisle with me at the end of the ceremony?” Maggie interjected; ignoring the sharp look her mother was giving her for her comment.

“Yes, well.” Barbara said, her lips tight. “Just make sure his bowtie is done up right—I’ll not have him looking… _disheveled._ ”

Mrs. Dursley said this while obviously looking at James’ hair, before walking out of the room. When she left, shutting the door behind her, Mrs. Evans took James by the shoulder, kindly, turning him so they were face to face.

“Don’t mind Mrs. Dursley—she’s just rather stressed with this whole wedding ordeal.” Laurie said as she tied James’ bowtie expertly.

“That’s to be understandable.” James said, trying to be nice, although having heard from Lily that this was simply the way Mrs. Dursley _always_ behaved, wedding or not.

“There we are.” Laurie Evans said, smoothing out the bow with her fingertips. “You look nice and handsome. Thank you so much for doing this for us, James, --- you’re really saving the day.”

“Are you slowpokes ready, yet?” said Jeff Evans, poking his head through the doorway. “We’ve got a wedding to get through!”

“James, Mrs. Dursley mentioned you’d be filling in for Stuart,” Jeff said, turning to him. “Richard, there’ll walk with you up to the altar and tell you where to stand and brief you on how the exit will go.”

“Sounds great, Mr. Evans.” James said, grinning.

“Don’t worry,” Lily whispered in his ear, giving his arm a squeeze. “You’ll be fine. —See you at the altar.”

James winked at her, impishly before following Richard through the church.

“Alright, alright! —Is everyone here?” Wedding Planner number six said, as she popped out of nowhere. “Places everyone! Places!”

Lily stood at the back of the line. As Maid of Honour, she had the privilege of walking in second to last, only in front of the bride herself. Maggie, who was in front of her, turned around and grinned as the ushers opened the church’s double doors and the string quartet hired especially for the occasion began playing the first chords of Pachebel’s _Canon In D_ starting up, and the last words that Lily thought before she started up the altar, following the other bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearers was, _This, is it…_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
